[1990-08-19-NJPW] Big Van Vader vs Riki Choshu

[Loss]

Talk about it here.

[Loss]

I was excited for this, and it definitely had the typical Vader brutality, but I was hoping for more offense from Choshu. He didn't even really start teasing comebacks until the last few minutes of the match, so this felt too one-sided. Choshu rallying a comeback of lariats is one of my favorite things in wrestling, and getting that for the finish was awesome. I was just hoping for something more high octane from beginning to end. But what do I know, he won the IWGP title!

[Childs]

They certainly kept it simple, as Loss indicated, but this was my kind of thing. Vader did eight minutes of Vader stuff. Then Choshu staged a stirring rally capped by an awesome series of lariats. And bang, title change. I've seen them have a better body of a match with a worse finish. But I'll never complain about these guys working a hard-hitting 10-12 minutes without any bullshit.

[PeteF3]

From Choshu's big superplex on, that was a comeback for the ages. The ending was certainly one of the best-executed chop-down-the-tree sequences in wrestling. The opening parts were admittedly slow enough to keep this from being a truly great match (though I really dug Choshu going after the eyes, because you so rarely see that in Japan and was a good way to put across Choshu as fighting for his life), but it was definitely really good and a cool moment at the end.

[shoe]

Just a good hard hitting match. Choshu's comeback is great with the lariats. I too dug Choshu going after Vader's eye.

[soup23]

Pretty great slugfest. I can see the compliant the Choshu didn't get much offense in but to me that just made his comeback more glorious. Choshu is the master of the short action packed match as this felt like a complete war in the time it ran.

[Kevin Ridge]

Vader trying his own Scorpion Death lock but Riki blocks it and make the ropes. Vader ditches the mask. He busts open Choshu with some headbutts. Mauling him right now. Vader makes a mistake and gets suplexed off the top. Lariats and Death lock but Vader makes the ropes. Choshu just winds up the arm and clotheslines Vader under he stays down. Vader’s eye is messed up again.

[Zenjo]

Thanks once again to everyone who put together the 1980's sets because I never used to like Choshu beforehand and thought he was really overated. Now I'm such a huge mark for the guy and understand why the Japanese fans were so crazy about this true legend of the ring.

 

This contest was high-spurt heaven and like a prototype for an ideal Choshu match. 12m of tightly paced action with two bulls refusing to take a backwards step. Vader size was overwhelming early on but then Rikki came back by viciously attacking the bad eye. Vader dished out so much pain in his career it was only to be expected he's get a fair amount back in return. Plenty of stiff shots and hot actioin. The crowd almost exploded as the lariats were raining in at the end. The right arm took a pounding, but not as much as Vader's head! A thriller that was all you could want from the match format.

[ajtroma]

I Loved this one. I was very glad though that Vader's eye didnt swell all up to a sickening degree again.

[garretta]

Great bout, especially the end, where Choshu still manages to chop down Vader with a series of lariats despite the arm injury, which he sold beautifully. I liked the huge standing ovation he got at the end when the belt was presented to him.

 

I notice that after that one shot that busted Vader open above the eye, Choshu stayed away from it. Nice sign of respect for a legit injury that could have led to blindness if it had been exploited too much.

 

Vader moves like a man a hundred pounds lighter, which is rare for a monster. The only other superheavyweight who could move like that, at least at the beginning of his career, was Bam Bam Bigelow. (I know it's been reported that Andre was a freakish athlete when he first broke in, but I'm limiting my comparison to guys I've actually seen footage of when they could move, and most of the Andre footage I've seen takes place long after he became an almost-immovable object.)

[drew wardlaw]

The finish of this was so great. After a rough beating, it's just screaming Lariats that finally take the big man down.

[dawho5]

I think a lot of the time we look for "great" when we see a match like this. We hope we're going to see A-level performances that blow us away each and every time out because of the names. But sometimes you "only" get very good. And this is one of those times. Choshu's comeback is still incredible even if the match that led up to it could have used a little sprucing up. Maybe that takes away from Choshu's comeback though.