[1986-09-16-NJPW] Tatsumi Fujinami, Kengo Kimura, Kantaro Hoshino, George Takano & Shiro Koshinaka vs Akira Maeda, Yoshiaki Fujiwara, Osamu Kido, Nobuhiko Takada & Kazuo Yamazaki

[Superstar Sleeze]

Tatsumi Fujinami, Kengo Kimura, Kantaro Hoshino, George Takano & Shiro Koshinaka vs. Akira Maeda, Yoshiaki Fujiwara, Osamu Kido, Nobuhiko Takada & Kazuo Yamazaki - NJPW 9/16/86 Elimination Match

Team UWF remains the same from March but there are some pretty major changes on New Japan. I think Koshinaka replacing Ueda is great especially because Koshinaka has great chemistry with Takada. However, no Inoki is a massive drop in star power. George Takano aka the Cobra is not making that up. Stream of consciousness review follows:

First Elimination: Fujinami vs Maeda to start this is after their epic bloody war in June. Nice Firemans Carry by Maeda. No commentary. Fujinami wristlock and Maeda gets a standing toehold. Maeda drops into the legbar. Maeda tries for a kick but Fujinami blocks but ends up in a cross-armbreaker. Less crowd heat and less of a red hot start than usual. Maeda tags in Kido. Fujinami tags out to Kimura. Nice grappling as expected from the New Japan boys. Kimura drop toe hold. Kido comes up with the hammerlock. Kimura bodyslammed bounces Kido off the ring. Fujiwara vs Takano. George thinks best of it. Hoshino tags in. FUJIWARA VS HOSHINO~! Tie up in the corner. Fujiwara strikes first clocking him in the head which Hshino sells like a million bucks falling face first.. Hoshino wrestles him to the ground. Hoshino tries to Boston Crab Fujiwara BUT YOU CANNOT BOSTON CRAB FUJIWARA! FUJIWARA DRAGS HIM DOWN WITH A FUJIWARA ARMBAR! Hoshino makes the ropes. Hoshino selling amazing! Fujiwara rips him down with a double wristlock and then gets a side mount with the hold. Hoshino clocks him and fells Fujiwara. Fujiwara tags out to Takada. Koshinaka tags in. Great chemistry between these two. Takada slaps. Takada kicks. Koshinaka slaps him back as is customary in their matches. Hip attacks from Koshinaka. Double wristlock takeover by Takada. Koshinaka backs Takada into the New Japan corner and tags out to Takano. Takada tags in Yamazaki. Nice drop toehold by Yamazaki. Yamazaki goes for the armbar takedown. Takano comes back with a meaty drop toehold and wrenches the leg of Yamazaki and Bow & Arrow. Even if Inoki is not in this match, you cannot not have that move. Takada sells the Legbar really well good verbal selling. Nice kicks but Takada dragon leg screw into the Figure-4! Yamazaki counters into a calf-slicer. They both roll to the ropes which is a dangerous position in this match. Yamazaki goes back to the legbar. Takano is good selling this. Takada tags in monster belly to belly suplex back to the legbar of course! Takada rolls into ropes and tags in Hoshino. Hoshino WALLOPS Takada with a punch TAKADA UNLEASHES FURRY ON HOSHINO! Tags in Fujiwara! Hoshino Pelts him with Punches! This is Hoshino! Fujiwara Headbutt Hoshino tags in Kimura! Fujiwara Headbutt City! Fujiwara tags in Kido. Kido swinging neckbreaker. Kido dropkick. Kido Saito Suplex Two. Kimura backslide for three. Kido doesnt do much for me so I dont mind him as the first elimination. I liked the first elimination from the March match better with Kimura getting the desperation backslide after getting owned than here.  Team New Japan 5-4.

Second Elimination: Maeda comes flying into to the scree with wicked kicks ! Maeda misses his rainbow spinning heel kick! Kimura bodyslams him! Maeda press slams him off the top rope. Crossface Chickenwing by Maeda! Kimura gas to submit. Maeda looks like a total killer getting back square. Surprised Kimura went before any of three juniors. He didnt even get his trademark running Leg Lariat in. Tied 4-4. 

Third Elimination: Koshinaka checks on Kimura. Maeda drags him over to Yamazaki. Yamazaki fires off some kicks and reverse elbow. Koshinaka introduces Yamazaki to the Rear View! floatover suplex for two. Fujinami in. Yamazaki hangs onto the ropes. Fujinami misses a dropkick. Yamazaki bodyslam. Fujinami avoids the missile dropkick. Fujinami Scorpion Deathlock and directs traffic to avoid the interference from Team UWF. This leaves Yamazaki no choice but to submit. I liked that finish. Kido/Yamazaki being the first two gone is fine by me. Koshinaka hit the Rear View, we shall see if he long for this world. With no Inoki, I do think Maeda & Co. Have a chance in this match. 

Fourth Elimination: Fujinami vs Takada! Koshinaka tags in to reignite this feud! Takada roundhouse kick. Saito suplex by Takada into the cross-armbreaker but Hoshino breaks it up. Takada tags in. Takada missile dropkick to Takada. (EDIT: The MartMan was typing a little fast...either Takano or Takada missile dropkicked the other, lol). Takano misses the dropkick. Takano beats Fujiwara back into his corner. Takano Tombstone Piledriver! Takano misses the diving headbutt on Fujiwara. Suplex by Takano gets two. Russian Legsweep by Takano gets two. Fujiwara blocks the suplex into a Fujiwara armbar for the submission elimination. Takano was like a three year old right before you put him down for his nap. Wild & crazy and then Fujiwara snuff out that fire and put him to bed. Tied 3-3 and I like Team UWF for the win! 

Fifth Elimination: Fujinami grabs a choke on Fujiwara. Fujiwara sells these so well with the eyes and mouth frothing. Hoshino spears Fujiwara through the ropes for the double elimination. Hoshino gave us some great punches but I think he could have done more. I get this logic as it protects Fujiwara. It leaves us with Fujinami vs Maeda as the big match and Takada vs Koshinaka as the big juniors feuds. I am interested to see the booking. 

Seventh Elimination: Takada goes for an early Boston Crab. Nice struggle but he does get it. Koshinnka looks to power out and does. Koshinaka backbreaker. Koshinaka gets his own Boston Crab. He releases it and bodyslams him into a Fujinami bombs away kneedrop. Takada tags out. Late Match Maeda vs Fujinami! Maeda tries to overwhelm Fujnami with kicks. Maeda gets a reverse Triangle on Fujinami. Fujnami makes the ropes. Fujinami catches the Spinning Heel Kick and Maeda powers out of the Scorpion Deathlock into A Boston Crab in A Tussle over a Full Nelson they both fall through the ropes but Fujinami made his elimination extra dramatic teetering on the apron before falling into the abyss. I saw the booking a mile away once these two got in the ring. The Double Elimination was the only thing that made sense. Takada vs Koshinaka takes us home! 

Ninth Elimination: Takada kicks. Big kicks to head that are not his best as they obviously miss. Gets him good in the chest with a spin kick. Takada Tombstone piledriver! Koshinaka kicks out. Koshinaka makes the rope on Legbar. Takada goes for the Crossface Chickenwing. He gets it! Big chants for Koshinaka. Koshinaka makes the ropes. Takada goes for the Dragon Suplex but Koshinaka drives him into the buckles. Bridging German by Koshinaka for two that crowd bit on HARD. Koshinaka calls that the Rear View! He hits a second one! Takada kicks out! What is this 2021? Koshinaka Tombstone Piledriver Takada kicks out. Takada smacks the taste out of his mouth fancy pin cover that I have seen Marc Mero used the most and with some tights gives Team UWF the win. 

Even though I agree with DVDVR voters this was the least of the big elimination it was still a lot of fun. Without Inoki it lacked the Big Fight Feel and the red hot heat. The work was entertaining but it lacked the drama and the climaxes of the others. ***3/4

[TheDuke]

On 9/28/2021 at 1:23 AM, Superstar Sleeze said:

Takada missile dropkick to Takada. 

This match must have gone off the rails if wrestlers start missile dropkicking themselves! Did Ethan Page dropkick himself on that Impact cinematic match where he wrestled himself?

[Superstar Sleeze]

I am more impressed that someone read that review! My guess is Takano was involved and Takano vs Takada when youre doing stream of consciousness can be pretty confusing from a typing perspective. In all honestly, I cant tell you who missile dropkicked who, lol. 

Ethan Page wrestled himself because of course he did. I am all for Man vs Self stories, but that takes it too literally.

[TheDuke]

Your reviews are awesome man. So much detail that I can picture the match in my head.

[Superstar Sleeze]

Thank you so much, brutha! I really appreciate that. It means a lot since I do put a lot of time into them that people read & enjoy!

[KB8]

New Japan King of Sports! Dios mio what a wrestling match. I didn't remember a single thing about this and that is just ridiculous because I thought it was legitimately incredible. It's basically a full sprint version of one of these elimination matches and I guess a bit of a low key one at ~20 minutes. It certainly doesn't get talked about in the same breath as the others. I never watch a match and actively want to play-by-play it if I'm writing it up, but I kind of wanted to play-by-play this entire thing. I mean I won't because nobody can be arsed with that, but I wanted to because something brilliant was happening every four seconds. All of the opening matchups were great. Fujinami/Maeda picked up where they left off in June, Kimura/Kido had an awesome bit of grappling, Fujiwara/Hoshino was an electric 30 seconds, Takada/Koshinaka wrote another chapter in their feud and this was some of their best stuff together, and Yamazaki/Takano rounded it off with a great 'lower-ranked guys proving their worth' exchange. They all went about business with urgency, and like in March it took a quick pin for the first elimination, this time Kido being the victim. I guess the UWF guys were susceptible to a good backslide?

At this point I need to talk about the Fujiwara/Hoshino exchanges, and Fujiwara in a broader sense, because their stuff together was spectacular and Fujiwara was fucking unbelievable in this. Initially it's Takano who gets in with him and Fujinami is on the apron frantically pointing at Hoshino like "no no let the wee madcunt in!" They both lock up and Hoshino immediately punches him in the ear like Hoshino will punch everybody in the ear and Fujiwara goes down like a ton of bricks. Just flat on his back, looking at the lights. It was an amazing moment, one that came off the way it did because Fujiwara is who Fujiwara is. What I've come to appreciate about Fujiwara over the years, from watching the footage of not only him but the wrestlers he trained, watching the promotion he founded, watching the style he had a hand in driving, is that he almost has a Hansen quality to him. He has this end boss aura that makes every contest feel special, every exchange, every hold or strike or move feel important. That sounds verbose and honestly kind of stupid, but I really believe it. Stan Hansen is someone who was perpetual motion, always moving forward and would only give an opponent what the opponent decided to take, if that opponent was even willing to try. Maybe not against a Baba or Inoki or Funk where there was less of a hierarchal gap, but certainly against someone further down the ladder. Like a Kikuchi, hypothetically, a Kantaro Hoshino. It meant a lot of his stuff in the 80s kind of bordered on him smothering opponents, but at the same time that needed to happen for him to build the aura that he emanated, which in turn made those moments where someone managed to hang with him feel huge -- or monumental if they actually beat him. It's not EXACTLY the same because I don't really think of Fujiwara as someone who gobbled folk up, but if nothing else he made you earn absolutely everything and when he goes down like he did here it feels like Hoshino has damn near slain a deity in the mortal realm. Their second exchange has Hoshino come in throwing wild punches and combos to the head and body, followed by Fujiwara charging him out the corner and caving his skull in with a headbutt. It was about fifteen seconds all in and it was phenomenal. And then there's Fujiwara's elimination, which is as perfect a sequence as I've ever seen. First Takano hits him with THE absolute bastard of all unholy bastard tombstones you've ever seen in your entire life, and Fujiwara's selling is off the charts amazing for the next couple minutes. Takano follows it up with a splash that Fujiwara rolls out the way of, but he doesn't get up and can't capitalise. This again is one of those things that you pick up on if you've seen enough Fujiwara, where he's clearly selling the effects of the tombstone by being groggy, basically giving Takano the rub by not mounting any sort of comeback. But you're also watching it thinking Takano better put him away now or Fujiwara will pull something out the bag. I knew the counterstrike was coming and I legit popped for it when it happened, the way he just ripped Takano into this disgusting armbar. Fujinami then comes in and grabs a choke (maybe a call back to the March match?), Fujiwara is going out - defiantly, as he manages a grin and then a scowl - but Fujinami drags him to his feet and Hoshino comes in and torpedoes both himself and Fujiwara through the ropes for the double elimination. In all of these matches there'll be one pairing that stands out above the rest. In this match it was Fujiwara/Hoshino, how they used a fairly short amount of time together to build this great little story, where Hoshino dropped the master early and got emphatically repaid in kind, yet refused to be beaten and wanted the satisfaction of eliminating Fujiwara, even if it meant going down with him, Fujinami more than happy to throw him that bone. But even more than all that it was Fujiwara being god.

I loved the Fujinami/Maeda double elimination as well. They were going wild leading up to it, countering and countering again, the Scorpion deathlock into a Boston crab, Maeda grabbing a full nelson and looking like he's for hitting the dragon suplex. Fujinami must've been expecting it too and made a beeline for the ropes, ducking at the last second, but in forcing Maeda through them his momentum carried him along for the ride, just a fingertip short of grabbing that bottom rope. It was different from the March match. In that one Fujinami willingly sacrificed himself for the team, whereas this time he took a gamble and it didn't fully pay off...though under the circumstances you might still call it a success. The Koshinaka/Takada matchup to take us out was pretty great. I'm not about to go back and re-watch everything they did together but maybe I've been harsh on them as a pairing for over a decade now? I certainly didn't recall Koshinaka destroying guys with hip attacks this early in his career. He was nailing Takada right in the face with these. It was back and forth and I guess it meant they had to forego some of the selling, but it was molten hot and they were killing each other so I can't really complain. Takada about slapping the jaw off Koshinaka before wrapping things up with the swank cradle was a good finish. This wasn't as much of a spectacle as 3/26 and didn't have the star power of Inoki, but I liked this one even more. It just did not stop, yet it never felt rushed. For a balls to the wall sprint it might actually be the GOAT. Just a wonderful match and REALLY the very best wrestling there is.