[1980-12-05-NJPW-MSG Tag League] Kantaro Hoshino & Riki Choshu vs Kengo Kimura & Tatsumi Fujinami

[SAMS]

1980-12-05
NJPW
Kantaro Hoshino & Riki Choshu vs Kengo Kimura & Tatsumi Fujinami
MSG Tag League 1980 Match
City Gymnasium, Tokushima, Japan
★★★
Card

After watching several All Japan tags in a row it’s interesting to see how starkly different the New Japan style actually is. Whereas All Japan seemed to veer between wild brawls or old school mat work, New Japan has a crisper pace and a more rough, formless structure. This match could very well be described as workrate-y, and maybe it’s because I’m less familiar with 80s New Japan in general, but I do struggle at times to pluck the narrative threads out of their matches. This was eminently enjoyable though, but had the air of more style than substance, lacking any real character or soul.
It was fun to see two Japanese teams face off, which feels like a novelty at this time, and despite my comments above, this didn’t feel like a disappointment. It was good, but never close to being great. The Fujinami/Kimura team felt a bit more established, with Kimura operating as the younger brother or kohai member, looking to Fujinami to lead the way, and they ended with the Lucha finish of hitting the big dive to clear the ring which allowed Fujinami to pin Hoshino with an O’Connor Roll.