I think you need to rewatch this Childs, didn't see any jump cuts, thought the work here was completely excellent, everyone matched up really well. I loved the super hot last minute with Inoki ducking the Fujiwara offense, and I have no problem with a liver kick finishing a match. This felt like a slam dunk pick to me.

 

1987 Disc #14

Yeah, I don't know who shat in my oatmeal before I watched this the first time. It ruled. You had great Fujiwara interactions with both Fujinami and Maeda and a rare showdown between Maeda and Inoki. You had a molten crowd. And the finish was pretty great as Inoki and Fujiwara kept slipping Maeda's kicks until finally, Akira caught up with Fujiwara's liver and it was instant curtains. The crowd really bought Maeda as the biggest badass on the planet at the end. Mea culpa on this one. I second the slam dunk.

Crowd is really fired up in this one and it is really noticeable because I just watched two 1989 tags where the crowd was pretty dead. The early fujiwara sections with Maeda and Fujinami was good shit. In two minutes, Fujinami and Inoki were more interesting than in their 35 minute match. Fuck, Maeda clubbing Inoki was choice as was nearly the entire segment. Minus some points for Maeda going to the leg after Fujinami wore him down with the sleeper but the drops on the leg lock were pretty cool and redeemed the segment. Dude, the Maeda-Inoki showdown and stretch run was awesome. Wierd finish for Fujiwara to go down on but props to Phil for saving this one. Could end up in my Top 50.