Anjoh Wasn't Trying to do No Harm, He was just Trying to Prove He was Tough. What He Lacked in Years, He Made Up in Guts

Yoji Anjoh v Tatsuo Nakano (New Japan, 8/29/87) - GOOD

This is one of the earliest Anjoh match I've seen. Maybe the earliest Nakano match. Both were still raw here, but they had twelve minutes to go and do their thing and by the end it was a nifty little contest. You could see some of that tetchiness both would soon welcome into their lives, though Anjoh wasn't a complete asshole yet and Nakano was still a little too lean to be considered the portly wee squash-faced monster he'd become. That what they did was rough around the edges added to the feel of it, like these were two rookies out to put their name in peoples' mouths. The kicks weren't always the prettiest, but they were thrown like they were intended to land hard and a few times they did, including one awesome high kick in the corner that hit Nakano flush in the neck. Anjoh had some great looking takedowns where he'd grab a limb first, and I don't know if it was intentional or not but Nakano took at least three of them by landing almost on his head. One was a hammerlock takedown and usually the recipient of that would roll through onto their back, but Nakano didn't and basically DDTd himself with his head all twisted. Maybe this was a thing he planned on doing going forward, a niche that he wanted to carve out for himself, like the Necro Butcher taking powerslams on his face. I reckon there would've been a place for that in shoot style. I guess he changed his mind and instead leaned into the guy whose nose would bleed in every single match. For his own safety the latter was probably the wisest course of action. 

Complete & Accurate Anjoh