[1975-10-09-NJPW] Antonio Inoki vs Lou Thesz

[Jetlag]

Damn, I didn't expect to enjoy this so much. In his prime Lou Thesz would cheapshot Rikidozan and stall, but here, he's going after Inoki like a killer, including dropping him with one of the most vicious backdrops ever seen. His holds look so vicious, and the match was both pretty slick and high resistance, which made the super basic holds here very rewarding. Thesz isn't exactly Negro Navarro, but his reversal into the STF attempt was one of the most graceful moves I've ever seen. Also, his bumping was still damn good - take note how he would whip himself into the mat each time Inoki sweeped him. Then you also get Thesz punching Inoki in the mid section a bunch and both guys using nasty back elbows on the ground. Hence, the match did at no point look like an exhibition. Inoki was along for the ride, but a good enough foil for the old fox. Really enjoyable maestro's match with a cool opening and finish.

[shodate]

matches like this show Inoki was better worker than baba was hands down

[G. Badger]

matches like this show Inoki was better worker than baba was hands down

 

Yeah, I agree because of Baba's physical limitations. Baba in tags, especially in the late 80's, is very good though.

 

This match had good reason to be bad but, it was great!

 

I avoided watching this because of my hesitation regarding Lou's age in 1975. He's no worse than later Flair in WWE. In fact, he's probably better. 15 minutes of awesome