[1987-08-20-NJPW] Akira Maeda vs Super Strong Machine

[KB8]

This never quite hit the heights that the pre-match mugging promised. It wasn't really worked like a match where one of the participants had been smashed into a ring post several times by the other opponent in the not too distant past. No real sense of Maeda being out for revenge, even when SSM jumped him again here and they had to be separated before the bell. And I know that's judging something for what it isn't rather than what it actually is, but when you're all about the chaos and you've got the prospect of Maeda right there ready to bring it then it's sort of hard not to be disappointed. Still, this was alright and even pretty good when they started whomping on each other. You never quite know for sure if Maeda's taking liberties so the strike sections were super heated. Maeda threw a goodly number of kicks that I would not like to be taking and Strong Machine was throwing headbutts, some mean lariats, even a few nasty kicks of his own. The parts when they took it to the mat were a bit dry, though. It wasn't even that it was matwork as such, it was really more a case of someone grabbing a hold and struggling to apply it before the other forced the break or escaped. Towards the end the heat picks up nicely and the teased count out grabbed the crowd, so they were biting on everything after that. Strong Machine injures his shoulder missing a top rope elbow so the ref' checks for a potential stoppage, and while this is going on Maeda is gesturing to the crowd that he's going to break something and then he kicks the shoulder to bits. I know he's not for everyone but by god I love Maeda.