Posted July 13, 200916 yr comment_5441911 #142 May 27, 1983 Andre the Giant vs. Hulk Hogan (IWGP League '83) - Andre doing his best Larry Z early on refusing to engage and threatening to leave the match. It looks like he is hitting the showers but Hogan chases him and they fight toward the ring. This could be fun. God, I hate Andre’s bearhug. We’ll see if Hogan’s back comes into play but Andre did nothing to weaken the back like he normally does. They were struggling and fighting in the bearhug but it went on forever. Shit, these guys exchange looooonnnnngggg rest hold and I look forward to the Maeda match. It really picks up in the end with some fun exchanges but the first 2/3 were so slow. No vote. Antonio Inoki vs. Akira Maeda (IWGP League '83) - Damn, Inoki is pissed and his flurry leading to tossing Maeda over the top was awesome. Maeda regroups and regains control but Inoki reverses and gets him into the deathlock/bow and arrow combo. I love that sequence. Man, Maeda is really controlling the match but makes the young gun mistake of trying to hook Inoki into an ab stretch but Inoki gets the Octopus instead. I thought it was over but Inoki let go of the hold. Weird. Maeda tries to take Inoki out with some big moves (piledriver, German) but Inoki nails the enziguiri to put it away. I think I like kick, kick, kick Maeda better but I enjoyed this match enough to move it forward. June 2, 1983, Tokyo - Sumo Hall Andre the Giant vs. Killer Khan (IWGP League '83) - The crowd starts off nuclear. However, Andre has a couple of long nerve holds and then a brief back and forth between the two before Andre ends it with the splash. Nothing like their classic.
