Some NJPW World Stuff

Akira Maeda v Nobuhiko Takada (New Japan, 1/3/86)

This was one of the first Maeda matches (maybe the first?) after he and the UWF breakaways returned to New Japan, which basically kicked off a two year run of UWF v New Japan that's one of the best stretches of work for any promotion in history. Maeda v Takada is a match-up that happened a lot (though probably not as often as I have it in my head), and while they have a few bouts that I'll never be arsed watching again, this was a decent showcase of what the next couple years had in store. It had a nice balance between exhibition and contest. Maybe exhibition is the wrong word because I never got the sense they were just doing stuff to do it, but I'd guess the plan to some extent was to show people what they could expect going forward. And the matwork was nice and tight, the striking had real bite and they managed to highlight what these two were about. Takada threw some really sharp combos and when he got caught flush a couple times you knew Maeda would try and rip his leg off. I get sort of nostalgic for this period of New Japan, which sounds ridiculous considering I didn't see most of it until about 11 years ago on bootleg DVD. But I may just watch every second of it again. 

Shiro Koshinaka & Kuniaki Kobayashi v Masashi Aoyagi & Akitoshi Saito (New Japan, 3/9/92)

What a mental feud this is. I don't know why everyone involved hates each other to death, or why the crowds are ALWAYS so rabid for a midcard feud, or who half the people involved in the post-match riots actually are, but it's all badass. This was basically a free-for-all. No tags required, just an uncooperative fight. Koshinaka is drilling people with his hip bone, Kobayashi is rolling out insane capture suplexes, Aoyagi and Saito start out in full karate gear and by the end Aoyagi is shirtless and Saito is walking around holding one of his eyes in place with a blood-soaked towel. Many kicks were thrown, many deep chokes right under the chin, many punches to the back of the head. Not a ton of selling at points, but that just added to the chaos. Don't know who replaces the half-blind Saito after the first ref' stoppage but Kobayashi absolutely demolishes him while Koshinaka and Aoyagi kick lumps out each other. By the end of the year these lunatics are all pals and then Tenryu and the lumpies rock into town and everything gets even more wild. The good sort of wrestling, this.