This was pretty awesome, felt on the level of their best 70’s matches against each other. Inoki does some cool work on the arm, including a nifty keylock spot. Andre was so awesome at selling, when he fell it felt like the felling of an elephant. I would have liked a better finish, but this feels like a slam dunk

 

 

Ginnnety #13

Antonio Inoki vs. Andre the Giant (12/9/80)

- Hmmmm, I wasn’t really digging the early part of this match at all. Andre going from the long bearhug to the head vice didn’t move me. Oh fuck, Phil… never dog Backlund for the enziguiri sell again when Andre dropped like a tree off of whiffed air. Andre’s work on the back was pretty great but damn man, this did not seem epic at all to me. Inoki never really sold the back being torn up and they spent a lot of time in holds. Never bought Andre being damaged by the arm bar even though he sold it much better than Inoki sold the back.The 2nd enziguiri looked like death and was epic but add the bad ending and I couldn’t disagree with Phil more on this one. Not a high end choice by any means. No vote.

Hmmm ... I'm kind of Switzerland on this one. Andre's selling of the whiffed enzuigiri really took me out of the match for a minute. That shit shouldn't have been a turning point. But I enjoyed the working in holds. I really got the sense that Andre could pop Inoki's head off in his hands or snap his arms like matchsticks. Then, he did a really good job of selling Inoki's work on the arm. See, I thought this copout ending worked fine. Andre was too strong to be beaten cleanly as he showed by rolling out of the hold and killing Inoki with a headbutt. But between the arm stuff and the enziguiri, he had taken too much damage to win cleanly himself. So he did the heel thing and held Inoki on the floor to preserve a draw. Anyway, I liked this enough to put it on the set, but I'm not as bullish about it as Phil. If nothing else, it sure is better than that North-South shit

Hahaha! This was not good Andre but good line.