Posted June 21, 200916 yr comment_5440984 #111 November 6, 1981, Tokyo - Sumo Hall Tiger Mask vs. Gran Hamada - This was a good showcase of everything Hamada could do. Suplexes, submissions, brawling, dives to the floor. He really had a huge arsenal, especially for the era. Sayama, for his part, played to the striker side of his character, which is the version of him I like the most. So this was good. Not focused enough to be great but worth moving forward. Antonio Inoki vs. Rusher Kimura (Lumberjack Death Match) - The lumberjacks hardly came into play. This featured a memorable closing section, with Inoki clamping an armbar on a bloody Kimura and refusing to let go until Kimura's troops threw in the towel. The fans seemed hot to see their guy beat the ace from another promotion. But my problem is that I never find Kimura very compelling. He was a sort of watered down version of grumpy old Tenryu, but watered down enough that I didn't care when Inoki slayed him. The match certainly worked for its audience, but it's not something I particularly want to see on the set. Tatsumi Fujinami vs. Higo Hamaguchi - These guys always worked hard and always had good matches with each other. They worked really smoothly and smartly on the mat and then had a buch of bigger offense they could trade when it was time to dial it up. But this version went less than 10 minutes and had no satisfying ending, so no nomination.
