[1991-12-21-CWA] Big Van Vader vs Tatsumi Fujinami

[Jetlag]

This is for the vacant CWA Intercontinental title. A fancam from germany where the crowd is hot for Fujinami as the babyface. Really awesome savage massacre. Vader was just obliterating Fujinami, like only Vader can, just trying to bash his skull in for the entire duration of the match, but eventually Vader ends up with a bloody eye and Fujinami gives it back to him, punching and chopping the cut, including a big leaping forearm smash right to Vader's eye. Vader is great as a wounded monster who can come back and crush his opponent anytime, and they work a nice finishing run where Fujinami looks really great, landing a GAEA Girls missile dropkick on Vader and catching him in believable fashion while remaining an underdog. This went 20+ minutes with no rounds and really could have been worked the exact same anywhere else in the world and would have worked. Best 90s Fujinami match I've seen and maybe the best Vader has had in Germany, depending on how much you like Otto Wanz.

[Phil Schneider]

Nothing I love more then when a classic match like this shows up out of nowhere. Until a couple of weeks ago I had no idea these guys even matched up in Germany, and here it is. This is on par with the best singles matches either guy has had. Fujinami is really aggressive, taking it right at Vader including opening up with a slap in the mouth. Vader smashes him with some of those slightly harder then expected blows but Fujinami opens up his eye with a post shot and then really works over the eye including an awesome looking flying forearm right to the socket. My only real problem was the finish as Fujinami kicks out right at three which takes some of the steam out of the pin. Still a big time main event fight between two bad ass dudes.

[superkix]

At times, it was hard to follow along, especially when they were in the crowd, but there were some cool moments throughout. I liked Vader's powerful opening with the headbutts, forearms, and suplex. But Fujinami's able to hip toss him over and lariat him out of the ring. When he suplexes Vader, the whole ring rocks, a great visual. There's a lot of in-and-out-of-the-ring stuff going on, and at some point, Vader is bloodied. Fujinami heats up during the finishing stretch, nearly pinning Vader with the running crossbody, but the finish was kind of shit with Vader sitting on him during the roll-up attempt and Fujinami kicking out at three and immediately getting up. 

[Clayton Jones]

I love this rivalry. I didn't even mind Fujinami staying strong (brother) in the finish so much because I loved the idea of him finally getting caught on a flash pin. That missile dropkick off essentially boxing ropes was something else. There's a clipped broadcast version of this up now too if you want different angles. Great match by both men's standards.

[Mr JMML]

Tatsumi Fujinami vs. Vader (CWA Bremen 12/21/1991)

Tatsumi Fujinami in the 1990’s is still great he may not be as great as he once was but it doesn’t mean he is washed far from it, the quality of the footage isn’t the greatest but it’s watchable, most of the german catch footage is in a terrible state to the point where you don’t know what you’re looking at but luckily this match isn’t the case at all, it’s a handheld but a pretty good one, it isn’t like the Dave Taylor vs Franz Van Buyten dog collar match, an absolute classic if you don’t mind having to put together all your energy in order to figure out what’s happening, this one is better in that regard, it’s a classic monster heel against fiery babyface structure, the size differential between the two is notable, Vader weighs more than 200 kg as mobile and agile as he was while Fujinami weighed half of that so Vader had the size advantage by a wide margin, they played into that throughout the match, you can figure out the way they did it, Vader dominated comfortably the early going but then Fujinami starts picking up steam, he gets the advantage by capitalizing on a Vader mistake to start his comeback, Fujinami unleashes a flurry of offense Vader has no response to, no surprises there, the crowd is firmly behind Fujinami if you have read the previous reviews it won’t surprise you, I love how Vader is always presented as a monster, as someone you should be scared of, doesn’t matter where he is things will always be the same except in the last year of his WWF run but that’s a story worth its own essay, Vader ended up winning the match after neutralizing his opponent, I love how he covered him, it was an incredibly badass move if you ask me, it’s the most stereotypical powerhouse move ever but Vader makes it feel special.

A german classic I sincerely recommend checking out.