[1983-05-13-NJPW] Akira Maeda vs Andre the Giant

[fxnj]

Maybe this match feels a little better than it actually is just in comparison to the bloated NOAH matches I've been watching recently, but this struck me as a great sub 10-minute match that probably would have done well were it included on the DVDVR set. They work a really tight structure that packs an epic feel into a short match time. It's very simple work: Andre works the crowd into a frenzy -> they do some cat and mouse stuff -> Andre demonstrates his power by downing Maeda with a single chop -> Maeda gets in some licks and takes the giant off his feet -> Andre gets serious and demolishes him. Andre's body language makes everything he does feel so big and the crowd bites on all of it. This is when Andre still had some athleticism, so he takes some great awkward looking bumps and works a couple neat counter sequences that you wouldn't get in his later work. Maeda also deserves credit for giving a pretty selfless performance taking big bumps and selling every Andre strike like a gunshot. Probably the best I've seen pre-UWF Maeda look.