Tatsumi Fujinami v Kengo Kimura (New Japan, 1/2/87)
This is one of my favourite Fujinami performances ever. Probably one of my favourite Kimura performances as well. I don't know why Kimura was so pissed at his former teammate but he clobbered him before the bell with a taped fist and Fujinami was up against it straight away. I thought Fujinami was amazing in the first half of this, all of it stemming from that opening punch. He can never really mount any offence and has to operate with caution, has to be patient before engaging, backing into the corner, trying to shake the cobwebs loose, clearly still reeling from the sucker punch and trying to just bide his time to get himself right. Kimura being all over him and socking his jaw several more times never did him much good either. There was a great bit where Fujinami managed to grab a nice hammerlock out of a standing switch, and instead of engaging in any of that Kimura just immediately cracked him in the cheek and Fujinami was on the mat staring at the lights. He'd stomp Fujinami while he was curled up in the ropes, punch him in the ear and let everyone know he was doing it, apply every submission with venom, basically he was all over Fujinami like a very angry rash. When Fujinami did manage to take over he absolutely slabbered Kimura like you'd want. He persisted and tried to wrestle this thing clean, but you can only push a man's buttons so many times before he snaps and when he did he tried to split Kimura's skull like a pomegranate. Fujinami punches the cut about a dozen times and you wonder if maybe Kimura should've stopped riling him up with those cheapshots earlier. The finishing run is short and compact and, even though they mostly stop the blatant closed fist punching, manages to capture a sense of escalating violence. That peaked with Kimura bringing a chair into the ring and piledriving Fujinami on top of it, and I guess even in Japan a piledriver on a chair carries some WEIGHT. KinchStalker on PWO gives us a little background on the finish as well, noting that Kimura's eventual victory is wiped off because apparently his leg lariat finisher was done with a loaded kneepad! In Japan! That boy hated Fujinami so bad he stuck a roll of quarters down his kneepad. How very Memphis. How very badass.
Riki Choshu v Yoshiaki Fujiwara (New Japan, 6/29/87)
Rematch of their bout from earlier in the month, which is almost certainly the best wrestling match to ever happen on the date of June 9th in any year in history. So a lot to live up to, and it doesn't quite, but I don't think they were going for that anyway and taken on its own it's Choshu v Fujiwara, so you will watch it and you will be glad that you did. It's been a minute since I've watched much Fujiwara from around this period and I'm wondering if he wasn't the best wrestler alive in 1987. He was incredible in this, in much the same way he was incredible in their first match. The man is a menace, unshackled and rampant, constrained by no rules, out to drag Choshu down to his level. Straight away he's throwing wild headbutts and grabbing Choshu by the throat, really forcing him to the mat while we get these close-up camera shots of his fingers clinching Choshu's windpipe. Everything is nasty and uncooperative and all of the strike exchanges are amazing - the slaps, the punches, nothing fancy or pretty, all of it ragged and GRITTY. Awesome bit where Choshu backs Fujiwara into the corner and uses his weight to pin him there, then hammers him with back elbows to the head and neck. Every time Choshu does something offensively Fujiwara gets a little more rabid in response, which means the GOAT of crazed grinning facial expressions does a whole lot of crazed grinning, extremely satisfied that he's under Choshu's skin and extremely happy to keep digging further. Everything around the Choshu lariat and Fujiwara armbar was unreal, similar in a lot of ways to their previous match. The first lariat Choshu throws here is one of the best spots I've seen in a wrestling match in forever and I'm dead ass serious. Fujiwara is caving Choshu's head in with amazing Fujiwara headbutts, properly reeling back and clonking him on the forehead while he has Choshu by the hair, then as he rocks back for another Choshu uncorks a lariat and DESTROYS him on the spot. The camera work really amplified it as well, the way it was zoomed in on Fujiwara, anticipating that headbutt to connect, so we never saw the wind-up from Choshu before he took his head off. The way Fujiwara sold each lariat was perfect, not just in the moment but as the lingering effects took hold. There was one brilliant bit of selling where he sort of stumbled out of the corner with glazed over eyes, his entire body language loose like you could tell he wasn't quite right, whereas earlier he was smirking and circling the waters and even the roll of his shoulders looked dangerous. He had that one Fujiwara armbar attempt, but by the second lariat it might've been academic. Another very badass match.
This was like two thirds really good and one third awesome. It's a 30 minute draw, but it only starts to feel like a 30 minute draw when there's an announcement that the time limit is imminent (I speak no Japanese but "2 minutes remaining" is truly the universal language of pro wrestling). Those first two thirds were fairly even, neither side really sustaining an advantage. I thought it came off as a nice slow build though, as opposed to them just killing time because they knew they were going 30. Then again it's these four so even some blatant time-killing would've been at least entertaining. Everyone was great in this and every possible match-up ruled. They also had the amazing running theme of everybody clonking each other with headbutts. I don't even remember who started it, maybe Saito though I guess the smart money would be on Fujiwara, but they all got in on it and I loved how they'd work those headbutts into standard exchanges. Saito lumped Murdoch with a couple and Dickie blocked a third with his forearms, which popped the crowd huge, then he retaliated with an elbow to the forehead that Saito did not expect. Fujiwara and Inoki were throwing putrid headbutts. This was late-career Kikuchi without the snarling and brain damage. Inoki gets cut open hardway and the sneer of pure disgust he throws at Fujiwara would shrivel your testes. The match properly kicks up a gear with ten minutes to go, first with an extended Murdoch and Fujiwara segment, followed by Inoki coming in and decapitating Fujiwara with an enziguri. Fujiwara is maybe the king of selling a surprise KO and this was an incredible bit of selling even for him. Fujiwara in peril is just sensational - his second enziguri sell might've been even better than the first - and Inoki was top drawer revelling in the beatdown. Inoki always had an air of arrogance about him so you can imagine how much fun he had putting the clamps on one of the crowd's favourites. Last few minutes are nice and heated, everyone pushing for the late win, and the Fujiwara-Saito double headbutt on Murdoch is the nearfall of the century. Prolly. This was very fucking badass.
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