Here's part # 2 of my 1980 NJPW cherry picking expedition. 

Gran Hamada vs Baby Face 04/03: Very good lucha/junior type match. This definitely translates well into contemporary wrestling. The wrestling on the mat was very good albeit more of the sit and stretch variety than the fighting over holds/escapes/reversals like we'd see in other NJ "strong style" junior wrestling. The running and flying stuff was the real showcase here. The only drawback was the finish where it was not really clear what happened... i.e. bad ref count perhaps? This was #83 on the DVDVR Best of the 80's NJPW. That sounds about right I think people have said this was superior to Tiger Mask vs Dynamite or perhaps just pre-dates it. I'd say it doesn't have any odd move/selling choices that you'd see in a few DK vs TM but the overall quality is comparable to those same matches. This does predate Tiger Mask but that doesn't necessarily make it better... I don't think that it features the acrobatic action that you'd see in many of those fights. Honestly I don't think it's a good comparison. A better comparison would be the Tiger vs Dynamite and Tiger vs Hamada matches. 

Stan Hansen vs Antonio Inoki 04/03: Was that the same ref from the above match? This guy can't count a pin worth shit! No matter, this was a great match! Hansen gave Inoki a helluva beating. I mean this was stiff. Those early knee drops and stomps would have cracked a walnut. Additionally,  towards the end, we see a couple absolutely crazy spots for 1980. I prefer the 02/08 match but, this feud is awesome. I suppose I had a Stan Hansen in AJPW bias. He is just as great in NJPW. If you're lukewarm about checking Inoki out, these are great ones to start with. I guess they have another great match (maybe better than this?) 06/05/80 but I couldn't find that online.

Tatsumi Fujinami vs Chavo Guerrero 05/09: A near classic technical duel. I loved the fight over the brainbuster/vertical suplex. A match very much about parity that felt fresh and exciting. They didn't over-do it but you could tell that they were equals. I would have liked a little smoother finish as that probably would have made it a classic in my book. Still for fans of either guy, fans of this faster, technically oriented wrestling should watch this. I finally got around to seeing this and am glad that I did! I've seen there's A clipped version out there so, I'd recommend finding the full version. It's a 18 minute run time in full.

Stan Hansen vs Seiji Sakaguchi 08/22: This is a pick that I made to include. One thing, I wanted to see Hansen vs someone other than Inoki. Secondly, I thought I should include one Sakaguchi match since he's the #2 native heavyweight in NJPW. Third, it's not too long in case it is no good But no worries! It's good stuff! Hansen is especially ornery and damn near kills a flower girl at the beginning. Sakaguchi is a more muscular, athletic Giant Baba. And so this shapeless brawl works well. It's only 6 minutes or so but is absolutely worth a watch if you're in need of a quick Stan Hansen fix.

Tatsumi Fujinami vs Johnny Londos 09/19: You're watching this for Johnny Londos and how Fujinami works with him. And you won't be disappointed. It's under 10 minutes or pretty close to it so I can't say it's a great match..they could have done a minute or two more. But it reminded me of a Dean Malenko vs Steve Regal match from a WCW Nitro (Londos as Regal)...Just snug, entertaining and technical. Very good stuff!

I've really slept on this early 80's NJPW stuff. I would highly recommend checking it out if you enjoy technical wrestling. I really came to love the technical New Japan style during the mid 80's UWF vs NJ feud. For whatever reason, I didn't give the early 80's a chance. I suppose I was interested but, I was still buying DVDs at the time. There just didn't seem to be enough bang for my buck, I suppose. Everything I have been reviewing is online (which is great) but you do have to look around so don't think YouTube is going to have everything/much.

I'm going to do a brief pause on 1980 for my next post in order to do a special Kuniaki Kobayashi spotlight. Afterwards I should have the third and final entry for 1980 NJPW.

Thanks for reading!