Posted June 21, 200916 yr comment_5440995 #113 December 10, 1981 Roland Bock vs. Tiger Toguchi - This was pretty much a squash. Bock showed some nice offense, but it's hard to tell how good he was from this. Antonio Inoki & Tatsumi Fujinami vs. Stan Hansen & Dick Murdoch (MSG Tag League '81) - Hansen and Murdoch wrecked Fujinami's back for most of this. They restarted it after a seeming double countout with Fujinami continuing to take punishment. He got to kick out of the western lariat but seemed about to go down to Murdoch's brainbuster, only for Inoki to knock him on top of Murdoch with a dropkick for the win. I don't know about this one. It was fun to see Murdoch and Hansen together and of course, they excelled at dealing punishment. The end carried some drama. But it fell just short for me. Maybe I wanted a little more dramatic tension during the body of the match or alittle more Inoki-Hansen? Can't quite put my finger on it. Andre the Giant & Rene Goulet vs. Antonio Inoki & Tatsumi Fujinami (MSG Tag League '81 - Final) - I definitely second the nomination on this. Andre was great in part because it was so easy to build stories around his seeming invulnerability. He really excelled at moving between arrogantly indestructible and flummoxed at his vulnerability. It's a shame he lost his mobility so quickly, because he was really something. And yes, the ending was quite the punctuation mark. December 8, 1981, Tokyo - Sumo Hall Tiger Mask vs. El Canek - Say this for Sayama: they brought in a lot of great guys to work against him. This was almost a protean version of his matches with Fujiwara. Sayama was the mover and striker, Canek the clubber and stretcher. And they both played their parts well. This also featured one of the best double countout set-ups in a decade full of double countouts. It should move forward.
