[1982-10-22-NJPW] Tatsumi Fujinami vs Riki Choshu

[KinchStalker]

Above: a photograph taken during this match.

This isn't quite the first Fujinami/Choshu match, or even the first in circulation; there are audience recordings of earlier matches in 1980 and in 1982. This is, however, the first one of the feud proper. I'm watching this feud for the first time in sequence, so I can't comment on how this compares to the more famous later matches. However, this feels like a quintessential feeling-out match. While there's some heat before the bell rings, they keep things straight at first, grappling and work-holding each other for the first stretch. The bubble finally bursts around nine minutes in, as Choshu finally brings some of the intensity that I was expecting. He tears a bandage off of Fujinami's forehead - he was busted open in an Abdullah the Butcher singles match the previous week - and reopens the cut with a turnbuckle slam. About two-thirds through, the two roll towards the outside while in a Fujinami figure-four, but before they tumble over Fujinami lets go so he can come down and drag Choshu out by his leg for a scoop slam on the outside. Some more mat stuff until things finally boil over with some high spots and then an outside segment. The match ends in a no-contest, after Fujinami dropkicks Choshu while he's holding a chair that the ref is trying to take away from him, sending the ref over the ropes. That's not the end of it, though, as they're so absorbed in their heat that Inoki has to come in and break it up. There's probably a reason this match has been lost to time, but I thought it was effective as a buildup to a later encounter. This goes for twenty minutes, though, and at least at this stage I don't think that was a great idea for this pairing.