[1980-05-09-NJPW] Chavo Guerrero vs Tatsumi Fujinami

[Loss]

Talk about it here.

[Superstar Sleeze]

Parv, gave this ****1/2??? I want what he is smoking.

 

WWF Junior Heavyweight Champion Tatsumi Fujinami vs Chavo Guerrero - NJPW 5/9/80

 

Good little technical babyface vs babyface match. Very symmetrical match. Loved the pair of dueling headscissors. Chavo gets the Upside down surfboard then Fujinami gets the bow and arrow. Those were microcosms of the match them really establishing eveness. Unlike the Keirn match, Chavo never really heels it up nor does he have the stiff offense of Dynamite to really get this going into second gear. His ass based offense seems to be his best offense. Even his piledriver does not get much heat. Chavo's punches pale in comparison to Dynamite or Teranishi at least in this match. Keirn was just so much meaner. They both tease dives (Chavo does the proto-619) to the outside, which does get the crowd going. I got a lot of Fujinami left to watch, but he did not show much to carry match. He seemed content to let the match sit in first gear. So far it feels like his opponent dictates the match more than he does. This is only my fourth match I have seen him in so plenty left to watch and definitely keeping an open mind. Fujinami gets a big crossbody for two. He looks for the Dragon Suplex, but Chavo knows that would be the death knell, but Fujinami is able to wrangle him into a German Suplex bridge to win the match.

 

Lukewarm match. Kinda disappointing given the talent, but this perfectly acceptable, good wrestling. ***

[SAMS]

1980-05-09
NJPW
Tatsumi Fujinami (c) vs. Chavo Guerrero
WWF Junior Heavyweight Title Match
Sports Center, Fukuoka, Japan
Card
★★★

Here we had another challenger attempting to dislodge Fujinami at the top of the junior heavyweight mountain. 
This match had a nice flow, moving from crisp matwork and struggle for holds at the beginning, then Chavo managed to catch Fujinami with a Romero Special, Fujinami escaped and returned the favour with a bow and arrow hold of his own, then we transitioned into a more strike heavy portion of the match. The technical work was good, it looked organically uncooperative and they didn’t spend too long on any one thing in particular, then when it came for the rough housing, both gave as good as they got, with some solid stiff strikes from both men. 
Chavo legitimately looked like he could pull off the upset, nailing some killer bombs near the end, before Fujinami nailed him with a bridged German Suplex. They were working towards a series of tope’s but both men had the other’s scouted and their moves were abandoned mid-flight each time.
My only gripe would be that I would have preferred a more overt narrative through the match, but that’s more of a personal preference than anything else.

[tcg91]

This was a nice 15 minutes "shut up and wrestle" match, I'm sure that we would need way more of these today. Overbooking, BS, excessive nearfalls, "poses", "trending", attention to pointless details were not a thing here, it was just these two on the mat. Granted, it lacked in heat, because the crowd only got hot towards the end, but this was technically sound and you could see Fujinami wrestling a respectful and competitive match, compared to the wars he had against Hara or Kid a few months earlier. Again, this never became too exciting or dramatic enough to be a masterpiece, but it worked perfectly and never overstayed its welcome.
***1/4