This was probably the least of the Inoki-Fujiwara matches I've seen though still an entertaining little affair. They spent the early section grappling and Inoki got the better of it, doing some real damage to Fujiwara's wrapped knee (sold beautifully, as one might expect.) That forced Fujiwara to become the striker, and he upped the intensity of the match by slapping Inoki in the mouth a few times. Fujiwara eventually gave up his control section, however, by initiating a macho head-butting contest. That didn't make a lot of sense to me, because he was fighting from the underdog position and had just retaken control of the match. Oh well. Once Inoki went back on the offensive, Fujiwara went pretty quietly (though he sold his demise perfectly.) Fujiwara's lack of standing in NJ was a problem at times because he couldn't escalate a match with Inoki into a real epic. I could see dropping this but I wanted to at least put it out there given the widespread Fujiwara love on the panel. Phil, maybe you'll see something more in it.

 

NJ Classics 335

Man I am going to go with a no here, I mean these two guys aren't going to have a bad match with each other, but Fujiwara pretty much gets treated like a jobber, the execution was good, and there was a nifty spot here and there, but we have the great matches between these two on the set, no need for this kind of thing

I thought this was pretty good. I will agree this didn't have the epic feel that Inoki matches usually need to staty in nomination contention. I don't know what the fuck inoki was thinking trying to do a headbutt battle with Fujiwara but he did it anyway. I like the finish with the enziguiri. Well, Fujiwara doesn't drop from a shot to the head but it did give Inoki the perfect setup for the octopus. Since we have better matches between the two including a Top Ten nominee, I'll agree with you guys and let this one go the way of the dodo bird.