DGinnetty

Gotta agree with you Loss. Mauro's voice sounds like a fake radio announcer's voice to me. Too fake. I try to enjoy the references he thrown in regarding Pancrase, Japanese wrestlers, etc..; but it just seems like he is trying too hard for my tastes. Dan P.S. I work with some wrestling fans who became aware of the public access cable show I did (and still do!). One of them recently told me "This Mauro guy sucks! Dan, you should be doing that instead of him."

I am on board for the Original Tiger Mask being underrated now. It seemed as if the IWC had turned on him years ago, reducing him to a selfish, spot freak. He was always more than that, IMO. And I don't mind being in the minority. The Yatsu carrying Choshu is an interesting assertion. I agree with you, but never really thought about it until now. Dan

Just checked the 9/10/95 match on the Kobashi special that aired yesterday. They aired 11:34 of the 19:41 They showed a clipped version of the 12/9/95 tag final, and uncut versions of the 7/24/96 TC win and 1/20/97 match against Misawa Episode 4 had clipped versions of a 5/18/97 6 man tag, 6/12/98 against Kawada, and 7/24/98 against Akiyama. This left time for an uncut version of the 10/31/98 match against Misawa All these shows have a 1:05 intro, with two 2 minute breaks elsewhere in the show. The episodes are 1:58 long, which gives them room for 113 minutes of footage per episode. Episode 5 looks to be 4 complete matches: December 5, 1998 Budokan Kenta Kobashi, Jun Akiyama vs Stan Hansen, Vader 1999 June 4 Sapporo Nakajima Sports Center Mitsuharu Misawa, Akira Taue vs Toshiaki Kawada, Kenta Kobashi February 27, 2000 Budokan Vader vs Kenta Kobashi April 15, 2000 Budokan Kenta Kobashi vs Takao Omori Combines match times is 88:28, plenty of room for pre and post match stuff and commercials. ****edit: all matches uncut***** Episode 6 February 17, 2002 Budokan Jun Akiyama, Hiroshi Nagata vs Mitsuharu Misawa, Kenta Kobashi March 1, 2003 Budokan Mitsuharu Misawa vs Kenta Kobashi April 25, 2004 Budokan Kenta Kobashi vs Yoshihiro Takayama 89:04 bell to bell time, again plenty of room for the 3 matches to be uncut. ****edit: all matches uncut""""" Episode 7 July 10, 2004 Tokyo Dome Kenta Kobashi vs Jun Akiyama July 18, 2005 Tokyo Dome Kenta Kobashi vs Kensuke Sasaki December 2, 2007 Budokan (Kenta Kobashi comeback) Mitsuharu Misawa, Jun Akiyama vs Kenta Kobashi, Yoshihiro Takayama February 19, 2012 Sendai Sun Plaza Hall ALL TOGETHER Keiji Mutoh, Kenta Kobashi vs Jun Akiyama, Takao Omori 106:39 bell to bell. It would be tight, but they might be able to get all 4 matches uncut. I tend to doubt it, as they will probably have the complete Kobashi intros for both Dome shows. Dan Ginnetty

I don't think this match ever aired uncut. It was clipped on the 9/24/95 weekly TV episode. The 9/10/95 comm tape only had 2 matches on it, neither one this tag match. I haven't seen this come up on any commercial release either. The Hansen/Kobashi portion of this match runs over 28 minutes of the 60+ min match, with the final 20 min against Baba/Kawada Based on the times for the other matches on this episode, not all of them will fit uncut. Dan P.S. Anyone else think it is a shame that NTV doesn't have a streaming service like NJ? So much footage from 94 to 96 that noone got to see uncut, because they were cut down to a 30 min timeslot....

I think it might be! Nakanishi served as a whipping boy when my buddy and I did the Toukon Retsuden cable show. In fact, as far back as late 96, we could see how horrible his timing was. There were at least 2 times in every match that it would look like Nakanishi forgot where he was and what to do next. That split second of indecision destroyed the flow of the match for me. Sorry to rant but I share your displeasure for Nakanishi. Dan

For the feud itself, you need to see the 10/8/82 6 man tag with Inoki/Fujinami/Choshu vs. Abby/SD Jones/Bad News Allen They have a disagreement in the ring, and pandemonium erupts after a few minutes 10/22/82 is the first televised singles match of their feud. Dan Ginnetty

If we are to believe Tim Hornbaker or wikipedia, his parents names were Sajiro and Fumiko. Not sure how Dave gets 1/2 Brazilian from that. Inoki didn't even live in Brazil until his remaining family moved there when he was 14. I do wonder why they went all the way to Brazil, so there might be some connection. Dan

I think the 8/8/88 broadway has more appeal if folks watch their prior matchups, at least the 1985 match. After their lockerroom altercation in April 88, Inoki gets "injured", Fujinami wins the belt, then defends against the prior champ (Inoki) who returns from injury. Inoki can't get the win, thereby passing the torch, or at least taking himself out of the running as a title contender for a while. The post match stuff certainly made it look like the end of the competetive Inoki phase, moving into the figurehead phase. Without any of the buildup, the broadway might be seen as a bit pedestrian compared to other broadways. Dan