[1987-06-12-NJPW] Antonio Inoki vs Masa Saito

[Superstar Sleeze]

Antonio Inoki vs Masa Saito - NJPW 6/12/87 Inaugural IWGP Champion

The winner of this will be crowned the inaugural IWGP champion. Before the G-1 Climax, there were annual round robin tournaments in New Japan since 1974 about a year after the founding the company. They were first called the World League then the MSG League and finally the International Wrestling Grand Prix which is a fucking badass name for a tournament. As one would suspect, Antonio Inoki won the vast majority of these, but other winners included Seiji Sakaguchi, Andre the Giant and Hulk Hogan, a pretty illustrious list. Inoki would defend titles such as the NWF Heavyweight Championship a title out of the Buffalo/Cleveland area and the WWF World Martial Arts Championship but this was the first time New Japan would promote their own singles heavyweight title. 

I really like both Inoki & Saito as singles wrestlers but again I found this match to be peculiar even though I enjoyed the work for the most part. Saito dominated Inoki for the vast majority of the match and the conclusion of the match is not very satisfying in my opinion. At the outset of the match, Inoki throws a wild mule kick that catches the ref and then hits a rainbow spinning heel kick and an Enziguiri to force Saito to powder. Saito return is able to get a trip but Inoki working into some arm work. Saito counters into the inverted figure-4 he used in the March pull apart brawl to injure Inoki's leg. Inoki comes up hobbled and Saito catches him with a lariat. Saito works a nice, tight Boston Crab. Great power out from Inoki sending Saito into the buckles as the crowd roars. Inoki works some heabdutts and then a tight chinlock, but Saito goes back to his inverted figure-4 and again upon the break clobbers Inoki with a lariat. As Inoki tries to get back in, Saito rams Inoki's head into the turnbuckle repeatedly and then hits not one but two Saito suplexes. This is where the match goes off the rails for me. I felt like Saito poured it on too much so that any Inoki comeback would not be credible. Saito went for the sleeper I presume as to not kill off his finish. They work the sleeper well, Inoki makes it to the apron and when Saito has to let go Inoki slumps to the floor. I think I have asked this before, but why do Japanese refs call the match in English when two Japanese wrestlers are working? I have heard this before and it always surprises me. Inoki comes in and eats another Saito Suplex and this time a cover for two. Saito goes for another and Inoki shifts weight and wins the match. 

Funny enough, this was my preferred finish when wrestling my younger brother. The Saito Suplex is the safest suplex in my opinion and I would do it all the time to my brother but the finish would always be him finally reversing the weight and picking up the three. I thought the match was anti-climatic and I thought the Saito heat segment was overkill. ***1/4 The post-match was confusing. Choshu clearly calls out Fujinami and Maeda who were on commentary. I am sure of this because I understood him calling out their names. The rest of it I couldnt make out, but it felt electric. These are five megastars no matter what I think of Maeda he was over. The weird part is Inoki/Sakaguchi/Saito hug it out, but Inoki & Saito have an island death match soon. I thought Choshu & Saito were buds. I dont know. Anyways a solid match but anti-climatic. 

[KinchStalker]

5 hours ago, Superstar Sleeze said:

The post-match was confusing. Choshu clearly calls out Fujinami and Maeda who were on commentary. I am sure of this because I understood him calling out their names. The rest of it I couldnt make out, but it felt electric. These are five megastars no matter what I think of Maeda he was over. The weird part is Inoki/Sakaguchi/Saito hug it out, but Inoki & Saito have an island death match soon. I thought Choshu & Saito were buds. I dont know. Anyways a solid match but anti-climatic. 

This was to be the start of an (ultimately aborted after Maeda's departure) intergenerational feud, as part of the initiative taken by TV Asahi (see spoiler tag below for a digression on the other component of their campaign) to reinvigorate the declining TV program. The Ganryujima match wasn't something that was proposed until August (interestingly, it was originally an idea that Fujinami had had for his first match against the returning Choshu, but Inoki aide Tetsuo Baisho told Inoki about the idea), when Inoki stated that, rather than fighting the new generation, he wanted to "fight the ultimate fight that only [he] and Saito could do," and show their strength "not only to Choshu and the others, but to the network that wanted to put [him] down". The heat between Inoki and Saito would get turned back up in the 9/17 gauntlet match.

Spoiler

The other part of TV Asahi's initiative was something that I might cover in a future post on my puro history thread, but the condensed version is this: they also changed the program's name from World Pro Wrestling to I Can't Wait Until The Give-Up! World Pro Wrestling and added a talk show segment in which NJPW talent interacted with television personalities. Infamously, this flopped. The one thing that anyone seems to remember about it is the time when actress and presenter Kuniko Yamada asked Hiroshi Hase whether bleeding stops when you go backstage - obviously she assumed they used fake blood - and he snapped back at her for asking such a stupid question. She did end up getting a cute little redemption arc though, working for NOAH as an occasional guest commentator and reuniting with Hase earlier this year.

 

[Superstar Sleeze]

That’s really interesting so the plan was to have Inoki/Saito align against the younger generation oh and that’s why Sakaguchi was used in the embrace. Jericho of all people covered this last year in his podcast. He covered the Island Death Match and the Japanese fan he had on explained the intergenerational feud you mentioned. If you have not listened to that podcast it is worth a listen.