One more 1987 New Japan entry for the road

Yoshiaki Fujiwara & Kazuo Yamazaki v Akira Maeda & Nobuhiko Takada (New Japan, 9/1/87)

Maeda is wearing a t-shirt pre-match with a big cartoon fist that says "I PACK A MEAN PUNCH", so this is already five and a half stars. Overall it was quite similar to the May match, at least in terms of pacing and roles and how they communicated their individual strengths and weaknesses. Yamazaki is still young and inexperienced and sometimes the overexuberance that comes with youth will be punished. Maeda and Takada throw very many nasty kicks and Maeda was dropping him on his head with throws, including an amazing capture suplex to counter a high kick. The main difference from May was Fujiwara's mood, as in he was not in a good one in this match. He was a demon at points and slapped the taste buds out of Takada's mouth, headbutted both Takada and Maeda in the jaw, threw body shot punches, head kicks, the whole repertoire and all of it done with a scowl. Maybe he remembered how that May bout went and how Yamazaki was eventually targeted, and this time his paternal instinct kicked in and he wouldn't let his young partner suffer so again. The exchanges with Maeda picked right up from their outstanding singles match a couple days earlier and once again we are here considering if it might be a worthwhile venture to watch in one sitting every Fujiwara v Maeda match committed to tape. Fujiwara embracing an exhausted Yamazaki at the end was pretty much the perfect post-match. 

And with that, as we draw to a close this impromptu little project, I present to you the highly anticipated 1987 New Japan Top 15. What a quality year for the pro wrestling. 

1. Yoshiaki Fujiwara v Riki Choshu (6/9/87)
2. Yoshiaki Fujiwara v Akira Maeda (8/29/87)
3. Antonio Inoki, Yoshiaki Fujiwara, Masa Saito, Seiji Sakaguchi & Dick Murdoch v Tatsumi Fujinami, Nobuhiko Takada, Riki Choshu, Akira Maeda & Super Strong Machine (9/17/87)
4. Antonio Inoki, Yoshiaki Fujiwara, Kantaro Hoshino, Seiji Sakaguchi & Keiji Mutoh v Tatsumi Fujinami, Riki Choshu, Akira Maeda, Kengo Kimura & Super Strong Machine (8/19/87)
5. Nobuhiko Takada v Shiro Koshinaka (2/5/87) 
6. Tatsumi Fujinami v Kengo Kimura (1/2/87)
7. Antonio Inoki v Masa Saito (4/27/87)
8. Yoshiaki Fujiwara & Kazuo Yamazaki v Akira Maeda & Nobuhiko Takada (5/25/87)
9. Riki Choshu v Yoshiaki Fujiwara (6/29/87) 
10. Akira Maeda & Nobuhiko Takada v Shiro Koshinaka & Keiji Mutoh (3/20/87)
11. Tatsumi Fujinami v Kengo Kimura (1/14/87)
12. Antonio Inoki & Dick Murdoch v Yoshiaki Fujiwara & Masa Saito (12/4/87)
13. Yoshiaki Fujiwara & Kazuo Yamazaki v Akira Maeda & Nobuhiko Takada (9/1/87)
14. Masa Saito v Kengo Kimura (6/10/87)
15. Akira Maeda v Masa Saito (5/18/87)