I don't know what Samurai was thinking. I don't know why he decided to approach this match with such impertinence. Don't know why he ever thought it would be a good idea to test Liger like this, to poke the bear so brazenly and expect not to get ripped apart. Or maybe he knew the latter was a very real possibility but still backed himself to weather the storm and take it home before it ever happened. A bold strategy, you have to say. Fair play to the man. Either way this is one of those New Japan matches that I imagine the majority of folk with any interest in Japanese wrestling has at least heard of. It's a match that had been heralded in tape-trading circles for years, one of the first I made a point of hunting down, and it still seems to be famous enough today that younger folk will know of it. So you've either seen it or you've read about it and you probably know how Samurai went at Liger from the start. It's still quite the shock when he spits on him before the bell, wholly unnecessary as a response to a handshake. When Liger never retaliated immediately you almost hoped Samurai would back away from that ledge, accept the olive branch and go about business with a little more decorum. He never and at least for a few minutes there he might've had Liger in some real danger. He rips the mask, smashes a glass bottle over Liger's head, hits a tombstone on the floor, really goes for the throat. It wasn't as heated a beatdown as when Sano did it a couple years earlier and Liger keeps the BLADE~ away this time, but it was all compelling enough. I do wish Liger tried to fight back once or twice though, maybe have Samurai cut him off just to build anticipation for the proper comeback. Or maybe the comeback being what it was landed more emphatically. Even through the mask you could tell Liger had reached breaking point and Samurai poked that bear once too often. The first palm thrust felt like a fucking sledgehammer and after that it was a demolition. My favourite Liger is pissed off Liger and this was one of the best fuck around and find out Liger performances ever. He brutalises Samurai and gets payback for the mask, practically ripping Samurai's off entirely, to the point where Sammy wrestles the rest of the match with it hanging by a thread like a little neckerchief, face completely exposed. He didn't forget the tombstone on the floor either and if he'd gone a step further and glassed Samurai into the bargain we'd be calling this a seven-star affair. I'd have liked for them to make things a little more contested in the body of the match rather than having one extended beatdown, but it's hard to complain too loudly when the beatdown was as resounding as this. At the time I was desperate to check this out for the big moves and highspots, and some of those moves and highspots are still spectacular 30+ years later, but what holds everything together is the animosity and the story of Liger putting another pretender in his place. Even the section in the final third where they kind of traded submission attempts was fine because at least on Liger's part it looked like he was trying to rip Samurai's arm out. In the end Samurai was one in a long line of challengers who came at the king, and like all of those before him he could do naught but miss.
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