[1978-08-11-Los Angeles, CA] Mando Guerrero vs Tatsumi Fujinami

[GSR]

Match review courtesy of Jetlag (had to repost due to some board glitch that wouldn't take you to the actual review after approving the post)

It's pretty insane to think Fujinami was having matches as good as this as early as 1978. Talk about peaking early. Then again, he was up against Mando, who looked world class here. I mean this easily wipes the floor with many highly praised WoS or japanese matches from the time period. Just an excellent, highly competitive technical match. It has that unique genuine feeling to it where it doesn't feel like two workers showing off. There are a handful of „highspots“ (meaning dropkicks and hip throws) which never feel like showmanship. There isn't even a ton of hold for hold work, as much of this is them battling over position, mostly from amateur wrestler position with guys trying to chop eachother down or get a cradle. Really loved the constant pin attempts aswell as the missed throws and takedown attempts. Tons of nice subtleties here: Mando does a weird head bobbing thing to distract Fujinami for a possible takedown. When Fujinami is finally able to hit a suplex Mando immediately rolls over to his belly to prevent a pin. Fujinami clocks Mando with an enzuigiri which Mando sells in a big way by flying across the ring; later Fujinami is again able to hit a dropkick which sets Mando loopy on his back, but he is able to retaliate in a desperation effort. I also loved all the counters Mando had for Fujinamis throw attempts, he would push him off, roll him over or simple try to snap his arms. Should mention Fujinamis hip throws looked awesome. This was about 25 minutes of great back and forth wrestling that paid off its story nicely. It's an aquired taste but it's one of my all time favourite matches and if you can get into this kind of old school mat based wrestling at all required viewing IMO.

[Mr JMML]

[1978-08-11-Los Angeles, CA] Mando Guerrero vs Tatsumi Fujinami

We continue Fujinami’s 1978 with his match against Mando Guerrero in Los Angeles, his style is awesome, the match is for Fujinami’s WWF Junior Heavyweight Championship, his opponent is a part of the famous Guerrero family, he is the son of Gori Guerrero, one half of La Pareja Atómica, the other half being El Santo and the brother of Eddie Guerrero and Chavo Guerrero Sr all of them were great wrestlers who had successful careers of their own, Mando (short for Armando in Mexico) is the challenger for Fujinami’s crown, they had a mat classic, I just hope this is the average quality for a great Fujinami match, this is at least at same level as his previous match against Ryuma Go that I analized yesterday, I can’t believe how good 70’s Fujinami is, his 1978 has been awesome so far, I think Fujinami is the best NJPW I’ve ever seen, even better than Jushin Thunder Liger in the 90’s, he is far ahead of his competition in every match, there’s an aura around him, he looked like the wrestler in the world in 1978, let’s see if he can mantain that momentum throughout the coming years.

The limbwork in this match is outstanding but I still feel like it didn’t pay off at the end, Fujinami does it pretty well but there isn’t any moment when Tatsumi takes advantage of that damage inflicted in Mando’s leg and that’s a missed opportunity. It’s smooth though, the match never feels dragged or slow because of that leg work, it’s an excellent example of what I want out of a junior style match, fast but effective limbwork and at least in that aspect it delivered big time, the match ended with another German Suplex pin combination, I assume that was his finisher.

I strongly recommend everyone to watch this match, maybe it’s slightly worse than the last one but still worth your time.