I hopped on the NJPW World streaming service. I have no idea how long I'll keep it for, but there's a whole bunch of interesting stuff that I haven't seen before and I figure their library is massive enough by now that I can entertain myself for a month or two. I may even attempt once more to jump into some of the modern stuff. I may, however, not fucking bother.
This was pretty wild. I have no clue about the backstory, but before the bell Oki repeatedly blanks Inoki's offer of a handshake so Inoki just clocks him in the ear. After that everything they do captures an amazing sense of hostility, with close-quarter hair grabbing and rough lock-ups and both of them always being on the cusp of dropping any pretence of competition and punching the other guy in the mouth. There were a couple moments where you could see Oki about ready to put a boot in as Inoki's on the mat, and likewise you could tell Inoki was desperate to cut loose rather than let Oki back to his feet. Like, you could buy that they were truly itching to fight rather than wrestle. Inoki grinding his forearm across Oki's face might honestly be the nastiest version of that spot I've seen, just a sharp slice of bone straight across the cheek. Then Oki throws that first headbutt and Inoki's sell of it is wonderful. You can tell it hurt him, but he wasn't giving Oki the satisfaction of taking a back step. He sold it like the unexpectedness of it wasn't really enough to jolt him out of his state of adrenaline, like you'd expect in a real fight when someone peppers you with a dirty shot like that. The second one he expected but that only made it sting even worse. The crowd heat goes up and up for every headbutt, for every instance of Inoki reining in his anger rather than letting it get the better of him. The visual of him, blood trickling down his face, telling Oki to do it again was incredible, and of course the moment where he's finally had enough and cracks Oki in the jaw is one of the single best punches in history. Really cool, unique match.
Antonio Inoki v Vader (New Japan, 1/4/94)
One of the all-time great Inoki spectacles. He was in his 50s here and took a hammering for the ages. Anybody who's seen or is even aware of this will probably have run across a clip of the German suplex, and obviously that shit was ludicrous, but I guess I forgot how much harrowing stuff he took in addition to that. I remembered the big Vader soup bones. I did not remember him getting dragged to the floor and slammed on top of a table, or getting thrown around the ring in general like he weighed next to nothing. The Vader Bomb looked like it about crushed his lungs and then he took a moonsault with all of big Leon's substantial weight just flattening him. And that German suplex still stands out as one of the most holy shit spots ever. It's not just the suplex itself, it's the close up of Inoki after it where he looks to be in his literal death throes. After the match he's back at death's door and it's sort of astounding that he actually finished the thing in one piece. Vader looked a bit broken down here, but if you ask him to box someone's ears in, take a few big bumps and get melted in the head with a chair then he is still very capable of being Vader at this point in time. Evidently.
No comments:
Post a Comment