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[1983-04-21-NJPW] Tiger Mask vs Dynamite Kid


Superstar Sleeze

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WWF & NWA Junior Heavyweight Champion Tiger Mask vs Dynamite Kid - NJPW 4/21/83

 

HOLY CLUSTERFUCK, BATMAN! I thought the Kobayashi match was bad. This had no psychology, awful transitions and weird WCW-like booking in the middle of the match. Also it is not surprising at all that Dynamite cant walk today because he looked like he broke his back about three different times in this mayhem,

 

I actually like their 82 match for the record. The beginning of this is not bad at all. Basic story is Tiger Mask is deadly out in the open so Dynamite has to keep him wrapped up. So Tiger Mask is supplying all the energy and highspots. Dynamite is just wrapping him up any chance he gets besides a nice missile dropkick. Tiger Mask show what he can do with this insane dive that wipes out Dynamite who hits his neck/back on the railing. Dynamite catches him coming off the top, hits the missile dropkick and then wraps him up. Basically that's the beginning, Tiger Mask goes for a high spot and usually missed and Dynamite wraps him up. I dig it. Dynamite goes for the diving headbutt, but Tiger Mask wriggles free. Good escalation. Then the match goes to Hell. Tiger Mask hits this dive onto Dynamite and Dynamite hits the railing straight on his back HARD! He topples over it. The ref calls for the bell. No countout. I was thinking wow that was sudden. I thought Dynamite legit broke his fucking back. They climb back into the ring but as if a match is not going on. Then Dynamite just attacks him. TOMBSTONE! Um ok. Ref pulls him off calls for a DQ. Now Dynamite wants to wrestle and is on the mic. Finally the ref relents. Dynamite kills him with a tombstone and then diving headbutt. In what I think may be the WORST transition in history, Dynamite picks him up puts on a side headlock and eats a Back Drop Driver. WHAT THE FUCK! I get you don't want to kill your finish. Heres a hint don't fucking hit your finish. But you don't think Tiger Mask immediately hitting the next move does not kill your finish. Tiger Mask tombstone piledriver. Dynamite too close to the ropes. HELLO! That's how you protect your finish. Tiger Mask crashes and burns on a dive to outside. Tiger Mask whips Dynamiet Kid WICKED HARD into the railing. Dynamite says fuck this noise and is going to leave I have no clue how he is standing. He grabs the bell. He headbutts the ref twice and there is NO DQ?!?!? When did I wake up in WCW?

 

They end this match in the most fitting way possible. Like it is the most Tiger Mask & Dynamite Kid thing ever. Tiger Mask hits a tombstone piledriver on the floor. Dynamite Kid hits a tombstone piledriver on the floor. Double countout. Fuck this match.

 

I blame Dynamite Kid vs Tiger Mask for everything.

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There's a lot of good Mask-Dynamite matches out there, but this is certainly not one I would search out. I got the Highspots Tiger Mask comp a while back, and they packed it with Dynamite Kid matches, including this. I think the crowd heat (what there was of it) is mostly anger about them just going through the paces.

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  • GSR changed the title to [1983-04-21-NJPW] Tiger Mask vs Dynamite Kid
  • 1 year later...

Tiger Mask and Dynamite Kid work at a pace that was not seen anywhere in the early 80's. This wouldn't look out of place on an NXT or an indie show in 2019! Not only is it fast, it's super crisp too. The crowd are absolutely molten hot for this, especially after the match restarts after the ref initially throws the match out once they brawl into the crowd. Kid is super intense in that Chris Benoit way. You know he's getting a kick out of working stiff and hurting people. I'm used to non-finishes after watching a boat-load of early puro a few years back, so I won't be too harsh on the ending. My main gripe with this is how happy they are throwing out Tombstones in the finishing stretch! After doing a great job building up to the first one, both guys end up taking the piss in the last few minutes!

Although I get everybody's criticisms of this, I dug this a lot and you can see that how these guys massively influenced wrestling for better and for worse. 

★★★★¼

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  • 4 years later...

This was really tough to rate, I even watched it twice. It wasn't bad, not at all, but it ended up being too disjointed and overbooked for my taste. Mask showed a lot of fire and they also indulged in some matwork with an incredibly quick pace, but they stopped selling the leg very quickly and so none of that mattered. The heat was there anyway and the mask rip segment ruled, like a good chunk of the first part of the match. I didn't really mind the restart angle, not even when it happened twice, but what annoyed me was the way they no sold the tombstones on the floor. How is one supposed to care about any other spot after that?
***

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