I brought this up on DVDVR but didn't receive much of a response.
Maybe we're just catching the highlights, but three years into the New Japan set I'm rather shocked at how well Inoki, Fujinami and Tiger Mask have been protected.
Thus far, Fujinami's only been beaten twice--once in the first fall of the set-opening tag match and again in the 1981 MSG Tag League Finals, with Andre pinning him.
Inoki has only lost once, to Hansen by countout.
Tiger Mask, with the 4/21/83 match against Dynamite still to go, has yet lose a match of any sort. Though he was part of a double countout against El Canek and a double DQ in the tag match with Hoshino against Hamada and Kobayashi.
My question is, were these guys really that bulletproof? Or are there matches out there where they did job that just didn't make the cut?
Just makes me shake my head when I hear people bitching about how guys are protected in the modern-day scene.