I was almost looking for reasons not to nominate this, because we already have two no-doubters from their series. But fuck, it was just too good. Vader gave Fujiami a terrible beating, but Fujinami showed so much fire and resourcefulness as he kept finding ways to counter out of trouble and pile up damage on Vader's arm (which was sort of the big man's Achilles heel in NJ booking.) In a great sequence near the end, Fujinami destroyed Vader's arm on several metal posts and rolled him into the ring for an armbar that easily could have ended it. But then, in a twist on their previous matches, Vader battled through the submission to set up his own finishing run. It really came across as two epic forces throwing everything they had at one another before a huge, fired up crowd. I can't see leaving it off.

 

New Japan Classics 340

This one started off slower than the previous matches as vader was much more cautious and Fujinami kept countering when it seemed like Vader was getting the upper-hand. Look for the hip toss into the arm bar as an eye-popping spot. However, Vader is a monster and he regains dominance before Fujinami brings him to the knees with an enziguiri and goes back to the arm. Nice. Childs described the metal post sequence and I thought it was over... but Vader is a fucking monster. It's about fucking time he took a page out of the Ander the Giant playbook. Nomination.

This might be the best of their matches, I really have to rewatch the other two. Damn was this awesome, I loved the use of the second pole, as Fujinami was using both to work on the arm. Great shit, and absolutely on the set.