[1979-10-02-NJPW] Tatsumi Fujinami vs Ryuma Go

[Jetlag]

Conclusion of their series of awesome 70s junior title matches. There is some animosity at this point – Go doesn't want to shake Fujinami's hand. The ref makes him do it, but Fujinami slaps him in the face! The body of the match is fantastic as they go back and forth between tight matwork with nifty throws and takedowns and escalating into knocking the crap out eachother. Go slaps Fujinami back, and Fujinam shows he can go there, even kicking Go in the eye! Fujinami really is quite the skillful prick here. Go goes into a greco roman knuckle lock only to headbutt Fujinami in the eye, so Tatsumi does this smooth takedown, into a front headlock... they end up in the ropes, clean break right? Nope because Fujinami headbutts him right back. Fujinami really looks like a worldbeater here, even bridging up from a modified armbar, which was a damn impressive athletic mat spot. They tease the big throws and work a great finishing run where they wipe eachother out with awesome 70s dives and do hanging by a thread-nearfalls. Great little match, and Ryuma Go looked like the best wrestler ever to have fought space aliens.

[superkix]

This match combines the best of their previous encounters from 1978, incorporating the suave matwork, the fiery strikes, cool paybacks and callbacks, and a little extra somethin’ somethin’ from Ryuma Go. Fujinami heats up Go with a slap right out of the gate and Go’s beside himself, tossing Fujinami out of the ring. There’s a great sequence with Go grounding Fujinami with a vicious-looking cravate takedown and Fujinami bridging out to snapmare Go. Once again, Go tries slapping his way out of a leglock but only succeeds in pissing off Fujinami, a recurring theme, in which Fujinami lays into him with hard slaps and kicks. In general, Fujinami treats Go like he’s beneath him, at one point shoving him out of the ring while he’s running the ropes. Awesome strikes throughout, especially those headbutts from Go. After Go cuts Fujinami up top, dropkicking him out of the ring, he goes high-risk with a diving body press – only to be followed up shortly after by a plancha from Fujinami. Terrific false finish off of the German suplex, with Fujinami just barely getting a foot on the rope, before Go gets the upset victory with the backslide.

[Mr JMML]

It’s the last match of the Fujinami vs Ryuma Go trilogy and it’s by far the best, the level of intensity shown in this one is incredible, Fujinami’s fighting spirit is amazing, he always looks strong, he makes wrestling look easy, Ryuma Go had the performance of his career, his offense was as intense as it gets, he wanted to win at all costs and winning he did, Fujinami’s aura makes this match special, Ryuma’s win wouldn’t mean as much if Fujinami was another soulless jobber this match wouldn’t be remember as much as it’s remembered, Tatsumi seemed unbeatable during this run and this match is proof of that, the crowd didn’t even react to Ryuma’s win, they were in shock because they didn’t believe that Fujinami actually lost a match and that’s special. That was the logical ending to the trilogy, if Fujinami won that match the trilogy wouldn’t have been as great, Ryuma’s victory is the perfect way to end it all, Ryuma’s reaction to winning the match is pure gold, his face is the face of someone’s whose dream came true, it’s a heartwarming moment that only professional wrestling can provide, it’s beyond wrestling, Ryuma’s joyful expression is very relatable, it’s a story about someone who has achieved his goal in life, recreating that feeling is something that almost no mediums can replicate, this match reminded me of why I’m a wrestling fan, no movie or piece can do what Fujinami and Ryuma Go pulled off was an amazing example of what wrestling can do with just a ring and a good camera angle. The pace of the match is even faster than the last two matches between them were.

I recommend to everyone the whole trilogy, every match is awesome and deserves a watch.