[1980-09-11-NJPW-Bloody Fight Series] Antonio Inoki vs Stan Hansen

[Loss]

Talk about it here.

[SAMS]

1980-09-11
NJPW
Antonio Inoki (c) vs. Stan Hansen
NWF Heavyweight Title Match
Osaka Prefectural Gymnasium, Osaka, Japan
Card
★★

I was well on my way to thoroughly enjoying this match. Without the manic outside action of the MSG Series Final in June, I’m quite certain there is a ceiling to what these two could do, but they haven’t laid an egg yet and consistently deliver satisfying matches. The usual dynamic played out here, with Inoki trying to solve the puzzle of Hansen, going for his arm early with some standing armbars, and then taking him down to apply a short arm scissor hold. The problem was that if Hansen got free then there would be trouble. And wouldn’t you know, he broke the hold by getting to the ropes and he was on top of Inoki in a flash with a series of vicious elbow drops and a big body slam. 
I liked Inoki’s early attempts to target the arm, but Inoki, in all his matches, seems intent on just running through his signature spots, which means he transitioned from the arm to the leg by applying the Indian Deathlock. It’s a move that always gets a pop, but it made no sense to switch tactics when the previous one was working to such an extent and just indicated poor psychology on his part in my opinion.
What really threw me off though was a clearly blown pinning spot where either Hansen zoned out or he couldn’t see/hear the referee. I couldn’t see properly because the camera was zoomed in so close, obscuring the referee, but it appeared that the referee had to just stop counting at 2, then after maybe two or three more seconds Hansen finally kicked out. The crowd seemed as confused as me and from that point onwards I was checked out unfortunately. 
Inoki did hit a Johnny Gargano style Spear through the ropes that I legitimately popped for but the finish, with Inoki sneaking into the ring before Hansen to snatch a count out victory, felt really cheap and a nasty Lariat to the back of the head didn’t make up for it. This could have been very good, but it just had too many warts.

[tcg91]

Not the best of their series, but still a good match. Hansen was getting over and, surprisingly, a few fans even cheered for him. They had a hot start, before settling down for a bit. Hansen's manhandling moments were the best part of the match once again, while this time Inoki chose to focus on the legwork, as the strategy of working on the arm never paid off 100% in their previous bouts. They tried a few new things, like a dropkick from Hansen and a brainbuster from Inoki, which were really appreciated by the crowd. An anticlimactic referee miscommunication spoiled the rest of the action, this time Inoki won by countout, getting revenge for losing the title this way
***1/4