[1986-05-19-NJPW] Yoshiaki Fujiwara & Kazuo Yamazaki vs Keiichi Yamada & Umanosuke Ueda

[KB8]

Bless the 1986 handheld video camera gods! Panasonic, we salute you! This wasn't available during the 80s project (I assume?); if it was I'd probably have had it top 30. I cannot tell you how much I loved it, although I will attempt to with many words. I loved it in all of the ways I expected to love it, but also in a bunch of ways I didn't expect. Every matchup rocked. They shake hands early but Fujiwara has no time for Ueda, waving him away because a deviant like that is neither to be trusted nor acknowledged. Then those two started with some rock solid grappling that I honestly did not expect Ueda to have in his locker at this stage of the game. Fujiwara slaps him off a clean break without a single second's hesitation, then when given the chance to retaliate Ueda surprisingly breaks clean so Fujiwara slaps him again. He didn't even think about it and had no compunction about doing so, a man utterly assured in his convictions. Later in the match when Ueda does crack him back, Fujiwara stares him dead in the face and the distorted colouring of the old camera footage makes him look like a psychopath from a Takashi Miike film. Yamada and Yamazaki have a gorgeous exchange, so quick and crisp and I'm sorry but give me Yamada doing the shoot style for 35 years. He was fucking awesome in '86 and this was some of the best matwork I've ever seen from him. It VEXES me that he pretty much ditched this stuff in the 90s, even if I understand why (New Japan juniors style, innit). Imagine a world where him and Sano switched places and Yamada went to SWS and PWFG and Sano wore the costume? Not that the world we got was a disappointment, but still. Ueda/Yamazaki was shockingly fun. Ueda kind of sandbags Yamazaki at a few points, especially when Yamazaki is foolish enough to think Ueda in 1986 is down for getting German suplexed off a whippersnapper, and instead Ueda whips him into the slickest armbar I've ever seen him pull off. Yamazaki looks almost disconcerted as he high kicks Ueda in the head and Ueda blows it off completely, so he backs into the corner to tag Fujiwara as Ueda stalks him down, and Fujiwara refuses the tag like "go and fight the fucking ghoul then!" Yamada/Fujiwara was the best of the lot and I love how genial Fujiwara is to the kid. They shake hands before having an amazing exchange and you could tell it was a proper handshake, not one merely for appearances but a handshake of genuine respect, teacher to student. They square off a few times throughout the match and in a later one Yamada backs him into the corner and slaps him, and the fact Fujiwara never headbutted him in the face right there is telling. When he has the opportunity to hand out a receipt he just pats Yamada on the chest, then looks over his shoulder at Ueda like he wouldn't be so lucky. Next time they end up in the ropes Fujiwara punches Yamada in the ribs, gives him a shot to the face and takes him over into a key lock. It was one of those "I like you, boy...but watch yourself" moments. And the armbar at the end is one of the most beautiful of the man's career. This honestly might be my straight up favourite match of the year.