NWF Heavyweight Title Match: Antonio Inoki (c) vs. Billy Robinson - NJPW Toukon Series II 1975 - Day 41 11/12/1975
This is quite famous for Robinson not playing with Inoki as much as Inoki would've liked. Robinson stated himself that he challenged Inoki to beat him in the ring if he wanted to win the match. And they went to a draw, so that might tell some tales in of itself. But in saying that, this was a clinical masterpiece. The grappling was highly combative with snugly applied holds and slick counters. The headscissors section was a brilliant example of that. Inoki tightly applied the hold and Robinson spent nearly 5 minutes trying and failing to get out of it with all of his might, even getting frustrated, pulling a little tamptum in the middle of it all. Inoki was great as well in keeping his grip. Robinson stood on his ankle plenty of times and grabbed and twisted his body to escape it but Inoki held on. Lesser men would’ve let go. The closing stretch was excellent. Inoki got desperate and started to fire off hard palm strikes to get Robinson out of his defensive shell, to great success, being able to lock on the Manji Gatame to equal the ties 1-1 just before the 60 minute time limit. *****
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