[1989-01-20-AJPW] Masanobu Fuchi vs Joe Malenko

[superkix]

What a nice find. A match mostly dominated by matwork, with some really good reversals and counters, especially from Malenko. I really liked how Malenko had Fuchi in the double arm hold and tripped him down into a butterfly lock. Fuchi works the arm for a bit and when Malenko bridges out of a hold, Fuchi armwhips him down and tries for the crossface chickenwing, but in a great counter, Joe hooks the leg to take Fuchi down to the mat before going back to the leg. Loved how Fuchi sells Malenko's holds and the annoyed expression on his face when he's able to escape. The finishing stretch is a suplex exhibition from Joe, who hits a snap fisherman suplex hold, a fallaway suplex into the pin, a German and finally, the Northern Lights suplex hold to pin Fuchi. Really good stuff.

[tcg91]

This was a little masterpiece, a textbook example of a 15 minutes mat-based clinic. While not representing the 'junior' styles of the 90s (or even Tiger Mask vs Dynamite Kid for that matter), this was closer to a Joint Promotions fight from their golden age. Fuchi was a mean one and very precise in his armwork, but also bumped around for the gaijin's offense, setting up a pleasant pace. While not as famous as his brother, Joe was a good hand and fully comfortable with a huge variation of suplexs.
***1/2