[1986-03-26-NJPW] Antonio Inoki & Tatsumi Fujinami & Kengo Kimura & Umanosuke Ueda & Kantaro Hoshino vs Akira Maeda & Yoshiaki Fujiwara & Osamu Kido & Nobuhiko Takada & Kazuo Yamazaki

[superkix]

This was a blast. Everyone (mostly) was fired up, the exchanges were red hot, the atmosphere electric. Ueda was a peroxide turd but fortunately, he’s not in this much – I mean, he tags in only to tag in Inoki. But when Fujiwara and Maeda are in there shooting against Fujinami and Inoki, it’s fantastic. There’s a lot to love about this match but there’s also a lot going on. The aggressive jockeying between Fujiwara and Fujinami, Takada and Maeda blasting Team NJPW with kicks and suplexes everywhere. The apron drama during the elimination teases really translated well with the crowd. The double eliminations were awesome, especially Fujinami trying in vain to shake off Fujiwara’s sleeper hold until the only option is to spill over the ropes to the outside. Of course, Inoki is the hero of this particular story and the lone survivor of his team against the invaders. After submitting Takada with the sleeper, Inoki endures everything the fiery Kido throws at him and connects with the big enziguri to win it for New Japan. Tons of passion, intensity and non-stop action – highly recommended.

[cactus]

Super hot match where everyone gets a chance to shine. There's zero downtime in this match and it well over half an hour. I thought the roof was going to blown off the building when Maeda and Inoki interacted. Inoki is the ace defending the company from those pesky shoot wrestler, while Maeda is the dickhead renegade who has no issue kicking Kimura when he's down to show dominance. Takada throws strikes so quick that I thought my video was running on 1.5 speed. What Hoshino lacks in size, he makes up for with pure heart. We finally get a Fujiwara match to match his consistently awesome performance. Ueda is in this for a grand total of around a minute, but the crowd pop huge whenever he was in the ring. The finish with Inoki cleaning house on the last two wrestler gave me 'John Cena taking out the Nexus by himself at Summerslam 2010' vibes, but don't let that stop you from watching one of the best matches NJPW has ever put out. 

★★★★★

[Superstar Sleeze]

Antonio Inoki, Tatsumi Fujinami, Kengo Kimura, Umansosuke Ueda, Kantaro Hoshino vs Akira Maeda, Yoshiaki Fujiwara, Osamu Kido, Nobuhiko Takada & Kazuo Yamazaki - 3/26/86 Elimination Match

I am wicked hyped for this match. New Japan vs UWF has been one of my favorite feuds. Team UWF is all the obvious choices with Super Tiger/Sayama being the glaring omission who did not come over for the Invasion but instead founded Shooto which to my knowledge is the first ever shoot promotion. Kido is taking his place. I have seen Kido he seems fine. Yamazaki is someone that has little New Japan World footage from this time period and didnt make the DVDVR set. I am familiar with him form UWF, UWF REBORN and the 90s. Team New Japan features obvious choices like Inoki, Fujinami and Kimura. Hoshino is not obvious but a very welcomed addition. Ueda I think shows the lack of depth on the New Japan side before the UWF invasion and the return of Choshu & Masa Saito. I am struggling with who I'd even replace Ueda with. Maybe Dick Murdoch? There is no way I am going to be able to keep up with the action, so stream of consciousness here we come:

First Elimination: Maeda and Inoki handshake. Big oooh and aaaah. Maeda wants Inoki. Inoki makes a break for it, but his teammates hold him back. Big Fight Feel! Inoki has convinced his teammates to start. IT IS INOKI VS MAEDA~! Maeda throws a feint. Inoki runs the ropes like only he can. Wild Kick by Maeda but miss! Maeda kick flurries. Maeda catches the Inoki kick.. CAPTURE SUPLEX! Side Mount looking for a double wristlock. Maeda drags him over to Fujiwara. Fujiwara headbutt!  Inoki chants! Fujinami in. It is the Battle of the Second Bananas! Fujinami gets a go behind, Fujiwara works his armbar takedown. Fujinami tries to block to no avail. Fujinami reverse waistlock. Fujiwrara bsucks off but headsicssors. Fujinami comes up with a side headlock. Nice double wristlock takedown by Fujinami. Hoshino in. As Tony Tiger would say This is gonna great! Fujinami clocks him with a right. Intense collar and elbow. Here comes the Mempho punch combo from Hoshino. Takada in and the lightning kicks on the smaller Hoshino tags him in the head. Killer Takada. Saito suplex. Legbar but Hoshino gets on his stomach to ropes. The crowd is wicked hot. Hoshino tags Takada with a  slap. Kimura in and now Yamazaki. Yamazaki kick gets caught. Kimura slaps in the face in corner. Yamzaki roundhouse, Kimura drags him over and Inoki is in and it the Indian Deathlock his speciality and he is wrenching back and the Bow and Arrow. Crowd is eating this up! So am I! Fujinami tags in. Snapmare. Yamakazi turns out. Crossface Chickenwing? He gets it! Fujinami looks be in a bad situation. Fujinami blocks the German, Yamazaki does too. Yamazaki tags in Kido who love his punt kicks. Dumb person do that against. DRAGON LEG SCREW brings in Ueda who gets a big pop. Doesnt last long as Hoshino tags in. Hoshino whips Kido into the Kimura Leg Lariat. Suplex by Hoshino for two. Kido drags him over and here comes Fujiwara. Yes please! Great fist fight and headbutt. Fujiwara holds Hoshino for lethal killer Takada. Best kind of Takada! Offensive minded! Hoshino gets defensive great and armbar and tags in Inoki. Big Inoki chants! INOKI VS TAKADA~! Inoki single leg back heel trip into the Legbar which is a slap in the face to Takada. Takada makes the ropes. Tags in Kimura. Kimura bodyslam. Boston Crab coming...Takada fighting...no way Fujiwara would let this happen to him. Takada makes the ropes. Takada kicks to Kimura. Kimura does a good job absorbing them. Tie up in the corner. Takada UNLEASHES FURY! Maeda in wrecking Kimura wicked, wicked kicks. Great selling by Kimura. Fujinami is pleading the case for the ropes to get the ref to back off Team UWF. Maeda throws a Belly To Belly Cross ArmBrekaer but Hoshino breaks it up Maeda tags in Yamazaki. Yamazaki kicks in corner. Shit doeent look good for Kimura. Yamazaki wicked roundhouse and headtutt. GERMAN! Only two. Kimura backslide for three! OUT OF NOWHER! Yamazaki is besides himself and in the shocked Kimura tags out to Hoshino. Smart. Given how hard it was for me to type Yamazaki quickly, I guess I am happy he is out.  :p Yamazaki is good for flashy kicks which we saw from him so he is perfectly fine first elimination. I like how New Japan was in early hole and snuck out an elimination. Team New Japan 5-4.     

Second Elimination: Team UWF made a big mistake letting their shock get the best of them as Kimura had the time to tag out to Hoshino. Hoshino and Kido go at it. Lets see if it bites them. Hoshino unloads in the corner and Kido strikes back. Kido swinging neckbreaker. Hoshino back suplex but Takada breaks it up. Fujiwara in and Inoki! FUJIWARA VS INOKI~! Inoki gets on his knees. Inoki goes for the leg kicks but comes back up. Inoki goes for the reverse waistlock. and then crossface but comes up his patented abdominal stretch. Inoki chants! FUJIWARA ARMBAR TAKEDOWN! I marked out. Fujiwara works the armbar hard on Inoki crowd is going wild. Inoki flips to his back. Fujiwara wrangles him back over. Inoki makes it to Kimura for tag out. Maeda is in. Can Maeda finish the job from the last fall? Kimura looks a lot better. Maeda kicks out the leg but the ref backs him up from the corner. Fujinami tags in. Maeda throws a high kick. Good tussle leads Fujinami in the Team UWF corner. Takada in. Tadaka throws wild kicks. Takada gets behind standing switch. Fujinami FULL NELSON! That can only mean on thing! Crowd reacts. Takada struggles over to tag in Fujiwara. Fujinami wraps him up and holds him for a Hoshino flying kneedrop. Hoshino throws a haymaker! It is on between these two! Hoshino backslide and Fujiwara barley gets the ropes. Hoshino wants the piledriver. Fujiwara backdrops out. FUJIWARA PIELDRIVER! Fujiwara legbar. MIDDLE OF THE RING. Hoshino makes to the ropes. Fujiwara drags him ack in the middle and Hoshino has to submit. Fujinami comes in and an checks on Hoshino. Hoshino is good for great Memphis-style punch combinations so we got to see that so it was perfectly fine time for him to get eliminated. Fujiwara vs Hoshino was electric. Still havent seen much of Ueda. Tied 4-4.

Third Elimination. Kido Saito Suplex on Kimura who powers out of a Boson Crab. Kimura works some Crabs and Kido makes the ropes. Ueda tags in to a big reaction and tags out to Inoki. Inoki vs MAEDA! Strong hard grappling but they end up in the ropes. Inoki is trying to eliminate Maeda via the ropes but Maeda is left clutching the ropes. Kimura tags in. Meada unleashes HELL with furious kicks and tries to eliminate Kimura via the ropes but Kimura hangs on. MAEDA SPININNG RAINBOW HEEL KICK ELIMINATES KIMURA! Kimura is known for his running leg lariat which we had seen. Kimura is a better worker than Ueda at this point (Ueda is quite old) but Ueda is the bigger star so this makes sense. You want Team New Japan down at some point. Team UWF 4-3. 

Fourth Elimination: Fujinami is in against Maeda. Maeda kicks the ankle and tags in Takada who applies the leg bar on Fujinami immediately. Fujinami rolls to his stomach which leads to a single leg crab naturally. Fujinami gets underneath but ends up in a leg bar but gets to ropes. Takada RIFLES Fujinami with kicks trying to eliminate him via the ropes. Wicked! Ueada saves. Fujianmi bridging German for two! Crowd bit. Takada hits his own for only two! Takada great kicks. Takada cross-armbreaker! Fujinami comes up with A SCORPION DEATHLOCK! Maeda comes in illegally and nails him with a kick. Inoki is in. Inoki Short Arm Scissors! Takada makes the ropes. Takada tags in Maeda. Maeda gets a Fujiwara armbar takedown. Big Inoki Chants in the Armbar. Maeda crossarmbreaker. Inoki tries to bridge to alleviate the pressure. Inoki reverse waistlock into a Saito Suplex HUGE POP! Fujinami in against Fujiwara! Fujinami pelts him with chops. The Fujiwara Boston Crab escape into multiple headbutts! Fuinami German Suplex for two, Fujiwara single leg back heel trip into the legbar. Fujinami Kangaroo Kick. Snapmare into the rear naked choke by Fujiwara. Fujiwara hags on as Fujinami keeps trying to roll through and that was sick! Keep hanging on but Fujinami closer to his corner. Fujinami and Fujiwara eliminate each other! When Fujinami does a forward roll over the the ropes to try to make Fujiwara release! Great use of the double elimination! Team UWF 3-2! The second bananas are gone! 

Sixth Elimination: Inoki comes in. Ueda has been useless so I dont like his chances. He is against Kido so this should be easy pickins'. Kido punt kick gets Inoki to the mat and works a chinlock. Kido gets the hooks in. Kido works the half nelson. Inoki gets a toehold. Inoki drags Kido over to Ueda to a big pop. Ueda comes crashing down on Kido's knee. Ueda vs Maeda! Maeda throws some big kicks. Nails him in head and Ueada wont go down. RAINBOW SPINNING HEEL KICK KNOCKS HIM DOWN! Ueada and Maeda eliminate each other when in the tussle near the ropes they both fall out. Pull apart brawl on the outside. Ueda was only 46 but was being treated like he was in his 50s wicked limited. They were able to leverage his starpower into a protected elimination for Maeda so he didnt have to job directly to Inoki. With Fujiwara and Maeda adequately protected, it is time for Inoki to clean house on these two jabronis. Team UWF 2-1 but I dont like their odds. 

Eighth Elimination: Takada in first. Inoki runs the ropes. Takada crowds him and throws a kick combination that Inoki ends up catching. They are he corner. Takada kicks the leg. Takada tags out to Kido. Takada ties up Inoki for some Kido kicks. Kido tries to eliminate Inoki via the ropes. The crowd buys it but I dont. Kido tags out. Takada tries for the cross-armbreaker but Inoki has hands clasped but Takada breaks that. Full hold applied. Takada snapmare into the rear naked choke. Inoki Saito Suplex on Takada. Kido in and Inoki dropkick! Kido punt kick. Kido neckbreaker. Kido holds Inoki for the Takada missile dropkick. Takada kick combination nut misses. Inoki legsweep! Inoki ENZIGUIRI! Another one! Floatover Supelx for two! Inoki rear naked choke on Takada and ring the bell. Who had Inoki vs Kido as the final two?!?!  

Ninth Elimination: Kido dropkick to the head! Saito suplex by Kido! Scorpion Deathlock by Kido! Suplex by Kido! Inoki clocks him with a uppercut. Great sell by Kido. Inoki Enziguiri! 1-2-3! BIG POP! Anti-climatic for an educated 2021 viewer that knew Kanye West has a better chance to become President than Kido had of winning that fall. New Japan vs UWF was so big so New Japan getting the win was huge. I totally get protecting Maeda but did Fujiwara really need protecting. I think Inoki vs Fujiwara in the Grande Finale would have had a lot more heat. My favorite New Japan Elimination match for sure but I find this genre just doesnt click as high for me as as it does for others. ****1/2

[Palamedes]

Why is the audience so hot for Ueda? Have they reason to expect something great?

[KB8]

I don't know how many of these multi-man matches I've written about by now. I bet that for every one of them I've said something along the lines of "really the very best wrestling there is!" Or something like, "if modern New Japan was like this then I'd watch it every week" or some such blatant fabrication. Basically I'm just repeating myself about the broad strokes, but this was amazing in the same ways the two '87 matches and the '88 match and the '90 and '93 matches are amazing. Every single person involved gets to look good. There's next to no downtime and something interesting is always happening. It's chaotic and the intensity is through the roof and they have the crowd going nuts from the first minute to the last. They weave the minor story points through the major story points and develop them over the course of the match. The key differences then are the stories that they're actually telling, which is where the beauty lies in making all of these matches feel very different and distinguishable. 

This started with the big Inoki/Maeda confrontation everybody wanted, possibly contrary to team New Japan's strategy because none of them seemed to want Inoki to start the thing. Even Hoshino took a slap in the face from the boss for trying to restrain him. It still seems wild that they never had that singles match in '86 because the people were molten for it. They do a quick bit of rope running and Maeda tries to take Inoki's head off with a high kick and this was one of those shots that, if it was designed to actually miss, you sure couldn't tell by the way he threw it. After that opening exchange they turn the pace up and everything goes by at a hundred miles an hour. Since everyone is fresh it's almost certainly going to take a flash pin or submission or a quick toss over the ropes for the first elimination to occur. Everyone is just too amped up for one guy to be able to hit a string of offence and score a pin without the opposition making a save. It's the best kind of hectic and some guys thrive in that environment. Hoshino will come in and punch you dead in the face twelve times, Takada and Yamazaki will throw multiple spin kicks in succession, Fujiwara will headbutt you repeatedly and oh if you're thinking it's a travesty that we never got Inoki/Maeda in '86 then what the fuck are we thinking about never getting Fujiwara/Fujinami EVER? Not one bastard singles match! Their early exchange was sensational and easily my favourite of that opening stretch. 

After the first elimination (a quick backslide) we settle into some of the bigger stories. It's easy to say this in hindsight, but if Inoki/Maeda was the money match going in then by the end of it Maeda/Fujinami felt like the logical progression. As the boss Inoki almost had to operate with a level of detachment, much like any boss would, I suppose. He bleeds for New Japan because New Japan is who he is, but I never really got the sense he bled for his teammates. Fujinami, on the other hand, was every bit the leader you'd want in the situation. He was always willing to come to a partner's aid, always the first to congratulate his teammates when they made an elimination, always rallying even in the face of adversity, then when he and Maeda got in together there was a different sort of anticipation. Inoki was the King and the bigger scalp, but Fujinami was the Prince and his downfall more than any would lead the kingdom to ruin. Maybe Fujiwara knew it too because he came in and tried to choke the life from him. I always associate Fujiwara with the amazing choke hold selling but Fujinami might've had him beaten here, eyes rolling back in his head and spluttering for air. Fujiwara must've had the thing on like a vice grip because Fujinami's lips were turning blue. And then Fujinami went and took a bullet for his team, launching himself and Fujiwara over the top rope, knowing he was going down but refusing to do it quietly, refusing to let Fujiwara wreak any more havoc in his absence. It was the perfect representation of Fujinami and not a chance Inoki would've sacrificed himself for the greater good like that. 

That said, Inoki/Fujiwara was a highlight in a match full of highlights. There was nothing quite as poetic about this as there was with Fujinami, instead it was a couple of old warriors crossing paths for the umpteenth time. Inoki grins and points at Fujiwara like "I see you're still wearing those socks" and Fujiwara grins back like "I see you're still a fucking prick." The exchange wasn't fancy but it was rugged and they fought over every hold. I should really watch their singles matches again (I guess there's no more fitting a time to watch a bunch of Inoki). Then there's Ueda. This is legitimately one of the only Ueda matches I've ever seen where he doesn't try and hit someone with a stick. Honestly it might be the only one. He's just a couple years older than Inoki at this point but really has no shot against the UWF guys, and yet the crowd are fucking badgershit mental for him. I think he spends a total of 45 seconds in the ring throughout the match and on one of his entries he's immediately tagged by Inoki and told to get back out again. When it comes down to him and Inoki against Maeda, Takada and Kido you're thinking it might as well be Inoki going it alone against all three. When Maeda spin kicks Ueda in the face you have no reason to believe in anything other than his impending demise. And then he takes a page from Fujinami's book and goes down in a blaze of glory, grabbing Maeda's leg and rolling to the floor, dragging Maeda along for the ride. 

The 2v1 finishing run isn't as dramatic as the rest of the match, doesn't quite have the same hook as '88 with Fujinami losing gallons of blood trying to survive against Inoki and Saito, but Inoki uses the lifeline Ueda gave him and if nothing else there's something satisfying about Mr New Japan braining the shoot stylists with enziguris. Really the very best enziguris there are. Really the very best wrestling there is.

[Mr JMML]

Another brilliant New Japan multi-man for me to review, this time it isn’t a gauntlet match, it’s an elimination match meaning every time someone gets pinned, submitted or thrown out of the ring is eliminated from the match, this is a part of the interpromotional rivalry between New Japan Pro Wrestling and UWF Japan during 1986, it’s a very intelligent move in UWF’s part considering that most of New Japan’s crowd would be interested in shoot-style and what better way to introduce them than having a rivalry with wrestlers they know and love, this match is significantly shorter than the last one, that match went over the 60 minute mark and this match is around 35 minutes long, although it’s shorter I think that this match is arguably even more action packed than Ishingun vs Sekigun, mainly because the match structure favored a more fast-paced approach to it, that factor also gave an opportunity to guys that normally wouldn’t have had much of a role on it but on the other hand it made the final stretch less dramatic than it should have been, in my last review I talked about how absent the crowd was and I said that I wanted more out of them, I have no complaints in this one, the crowd genuinely cares about the match, they react every time their ace is in danger, that’s something that was missing in the last match. As I said before, the finish was anticlimactic, not just because is a 2 vs 1, it’s because it doesn’t feel earned, it’s something that The Warriors vs The Heenan Family in Survivor Series 1989 did right, the main difference was that the two wrestlers that The Ultimate Warrior defeated were noticeably weaker than him and that match also was building towards a Bobby Heenan vs Ultimate Warrior that eventually happened but in this one it’s more like Inoki is going to win one way or another and that isn’t as appealing.
 

Fujinami’s performance in the match was awesome, to be honest everyone’s performance was, no wonder why this match is considered an all-time classic. 

I recommend this match to everyone who liked the last multi-man, the match won’t dissapoint you I swear.