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DVD #4: Adrian Adonis & Dick Murdoch vs Tatsumi Fujinami & Kengo Kimura


Loss

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  • 2 weeks later...

I love Murdoch taking the flowers and then casually tossing them out of the ring.

 

Murdoch and Adonis are a fantastic, forgotten team. Every time I see them (which hasn't been often enough), I'm impressed. One thing they do is sell fatigue better than most wrestlers I've seen. I saw a six-man pitting them against Slaughter and the Samoans and it was fantastic.

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Good match. Like how Adonis and Murdoch immediately took control by taking things to the outside, right away setting up the dynamic between the big dumb american wrestlers and the real Japanese athletes. Murdoch and Adonis were great isolating one guy and cutting him off at every turn, really just felt suffocating, and the crowd was really responsive to Funjinami's and Kamura's comeback teases. Really love Adonis's theatrical, over the top bumping. I guess you could say it was TOO cutesy, but I thought it worked really well to highlight that FUjinami and Kamura were the skilled natives who had it over Murdoch and Funjinami with wrestling, but were being dominated mainly by size, brawling and cutting corners.

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This match has inspired a ton of debate from the panel working on the DVDVR New Japan set. Here's my take ...

 

I'm guilty of forcing Phil to watch this when he was still glowing from his third viewing of Takano-Lane. But seriously, I've now watched this match three times in search of what Will loved about it, and my esteem for it has dropped on each viewing. It's not a bad match, because Adonis and Murdoch were pretty reliably entertaining with their cool offense, bumping and heel schtick. But they really didn't give Kimura and Fujinami shit in this match. I'd say they took 95 percent of the offense. The R' n' R' Express comparison doesn't hold up, because when Morton took a beating for 10 minutes, he and Gibson almost always got their payback after the hot tag. In this match, Kimura took a lot of abuse and got to work a few cool comeback teases. But there was no comeback, so the teases were just that ... teases with no payoff. If you had never seen either team and watched this match, you'd come away thinking Adonis and Murdoch were badass and a lot of fun. But would you have any sense that Kimura and Fujinami were great wrestlers? I mean, Fujinami was probably one of the five best guys in the world at this point. Would you have any sense of that or of what he did well based on this? I don't see how.

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I read this stuff before watching the match. As I was watching, I was thinking, "it's not as bad as they say." It seemed like Kimura and Fujinami were getting some revenge spots, some offense. But by the end, I have to agree with Childs. This was too one-sided.

 

Oh, and was this in Hawaii? I'm guessing it was, given the English-speaking announcer.

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  • 2 weeks later...

I'm new, so forgive my long-windedness at times. I wrote out a whole thing for my blog and decided to post my thoughts here too.

 

Great moment at the beginning when they give the ceremonial flowers out and Murdoch launches them into the crowd. I’m surprised at how hold-based the match is, and coming off of see the first Dragon Gate USA show live, it’s a big switch. I love the progressions and logic, though at times it’s a bit too slow for my tastes right now. I think a commentary I could understand over the match would help with some dead spots, but it’s really a question of mood anyway.

 

Murdoch and Adonis are a great team, who are really great at controlling the ring and making quick tags. It’s a bit lost on the newer style, which is usually tagging to set up a big double high spot. I’m reminded that I own a Murdoch/Adonis in NJ comp, and I’m hoping the NJ 80s set will make me wanna bust that out as I see what made the ballot and what didn’t. I should also mention that Murdoch and Adonis bump great for these guys when they do lose control of the match. I have trouble telling Fujinami and Kimura apart (same black tights and boots) since I’m new to seeing them (read about them forever), but they are really great fiery babyfaces when they make their runs, and the heel cut offs are great too.

 

I loved the section where Murdoch kept getting greedy for a second shoulder block, and Adonis would have to come in and make the save for him after he got caught. I learned from Mid South to love Murdoch and his punches, but in this match it’s all about how great he is at selling punches and swinging wildly back. This match is awesome for how the heel control segments flow into the Japanese hope spots and comebacks. They keep coming so close to getting over on those big ugly Americans, and then it’s snatched away continually. Adonis’ bumping might be more impressive in some respects than Murdoch, and that was a revelation for me (forgiving some of the theatrics at times). The finish came a bit out of nowhere for me, but not every match is perfect, and this was a good primer for the NJ set. I do think Murdoch and Adonis got to much of the match, but I’m guessing this was a match with some overall booking thought long term or storyline wise, so who knows what came after this (perhaps the NJ 80s committee does). Oh, and the Murdoch/Adonis celebratory handshake is classic!

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Probably the most contentious match yet in the NJ nomination process...

 

Adrian Adonis & Dick Murdoch vs. Tatsumi Fujinami & Kengo Kimura (12/8/84)

- Starts off strong with Murdoch and Adonis using the belts as weapons, nearly knocking over a trophy, slamming the Japanese guys on tables. Murdoch and Adonis are such a great tag team, abusing Kimura, cutting off the ring. Adonis lays in some pretty vicious shots. Kimura makes a great comeback using the Americans against each other. He whips Adonis into the corner, crushing Murdoch and shortly after, he uses Murdoch to ram Adonis out of the ring. It was short lived after a Murdoch elbow but it was a great comeback sequence. Kimura’s selling after each shot is pretty great too and something I never noticed before. Great turnaround later on as Kimura slams the Americans on the table outside and they lay there in a crumpled mess. Hot ending which ends in a North-South Doomsday Device and a clean pin. This was just super freaking great. Murdoch and Adonis ruled, dominating the match with Kimura and Fujinami throwing in enough hope spots and comebacks to keep it moving. Add the clean pin and this is probably in my Top Ten. Strong, strong nomination.

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