[1986-05-16-NJPW] Yoshiaki Fujiwara vs Kengo Kimura

[Superstar Sleeze]

Yoshiaki Fujiwara vs Kengo Kimura - NJPW 5/16/86

I was immediately happy I watched this match. Remember how I complained in the Inoki/Fujiwara match that they didnt really let Fujiwara be Fujiwara. Well in this match they let Fujiwara be Fujiwara and it fucking ruled so hard. Fujiwara bumrushes Kimura as he is entering the ring. He summarily throws him out of the ring. Then just slams his head into as many hard metal objects as he can. Kimura is gushing blood and Fujiwara is just headbutting him at will. This is glorious! Fujiwara armbar takedown, but Kimura makes the ropes. Kimura is able to mount Fujiwara and hold him by the throat as he punches him. Now this is hate! Kimura goes for a sleeper but is still pretty banged up. So Fujiwara just starts full on choking him. Kimura gets some kicks in and even cracks Fujiwara with a chair and then into the metal turnbuckle, but to no avail as Fujiwara's head is too hard. Fujiwara decimates Kimura with headbutts and chokes. This is just heel Fujiwara at his finest. The kneebars work here because the way they are sold. Kimura makes one last comeback with a butterfly suplex and a PILEDRIVER! But Fujiwara kicks out and throws him out of the ring. He throws him over the railing into the fans as the match ends in a double countout. Really cool, short match that puts over how interesting Fujiwara is as a performer. There are some strange points where Fujiwara is almost uncooperative in how he is refusing to sell and they lose that hate-filled brawl vibe but then pick it back up. The parts that are good are really good and like I said an excellent individual showcase of the Man, Fujiwara! **** 

[WrestlingFan]

What I like about this match is that it really starts in a thrilling way. Fujiwara rushes at Kimura, takes him out of the ring and makes him bleed by doing headbutts. Here, Fujiwara really behaves like an asshole. He continues to play this role by strangling his opponent until the count of 4. I find that Kimura often bland. What I find positive and refreshing in this match is that we are dealing with another Kimura. He does not appreciate at all the way he gets treated and this is the first time I see him angry. He counterattacks with precipitation, does a submission to his opponent and when he must release the hold, he waits until the referee counts to 4 and a half. He even once did a chair shot outside the ring.

 

[KB8]

There are a few different faces of Fujiwara. One is the elite grappler whose general decorum is befitting of his status, aggressive but fair, tenacious but ultimately sporting. Another is the old master who's happy to mess around a bit, who can still enjoy life even past his prime, satisfied with the legacy he's built, secure in his standing. Both of those Fujiwaras are great, sometimes for similar reasons, sometimes for different ones. But my favourite Fujiwara is the one who's out to watch the world burn. The Fujiwara who sets it alight in the first place, where decorum goes out the window and victory becomes a secondary concern. The Fujiwara who wants to make Choshu's life a misery, to drag him down to Fujiwara's level, even just for the sport of it. This was that Fujiwara, and I don't have a clue what prompted it. He attacks Kimura while the latter is stepping through the ropes and after a minute Kimura is bleeding all over himself. You could tell right away that Fujiwara wasn't arsed about winning this and was more bothered about putting Kimura through hell. Any match against this Fujiwara is a fight and never a fair one. Even more so it's a test, one less about skill and more about character, your mental and physical toughness. How much can you take? How much can you give back? How much does Fujiwara really care so long as he has his fun? Kimura had no choice but to embrace the challenge and basically his first bit of offence was pinning Fujiwara to the mat and grabbing him by the throat. It didn't last long and pretty soon Fujiwara was back headbutting him and showing him how you really choke someone. Fujiwara has one of the meanest chokes ever, and I'm not talking about the guillotine or rear naked sort. He'll just wrap his hand around your trachea like a vice grip, crazy-eyed and frothing at the mouth and maybe a part of you wonders if Kimura shouldn't just live to fight another day. He's a wrestler and this isn't even a wrestling match anymore. Pick your battles and all that. I'm a sucker for a good rock solid Fujiwara cranium spot and this had three great ones. First Kimura smashed a chair over his head and Fujiwara merely took the skeleton of it and passed it to a bystander, then Kimura rammed him head-first into the turnbuckle bolts, the foolishness of it swiftly laughed off. There came a point where Fujiwara was covered in Kimura's blood, a wide, bloody streak of it up the side of his face that resembled the grin of Heath Ledger's Joker. If that isn't a perfect visual then I don't know what is. Kimura sells every legbar like his tibia's about to snap and Fujiwara looks demonic, like a snapped tibia was the least of his intentions. When you think Kimura might have a shot after the piledriver Fujiwara just takes him to the floor again and dumps him over the railing, and it's hard to explain but he did it with a casualness that was sort of remarkable. His body language, physical demeanour, whatever - that one moment pretty much summed up his entire thought process and he communicated it in a way that not many wrestlers could. That he had the cheek to bow to the crowd in the middle of the ring after the bell was the cherry on top. Really one of the great Fujiwara performances.