NJPW New Year Golden Series 1988 - Day 22 - 01/02/1988
Top Of The Super Junior I Match: Hiroshi Hase vs. Shiro Koshinaka
A strong Junior style of match with heavy emphasis on grappling that escalated into nearfalls and high spots. Hase is the strongest wrestler out of the two whereas Koshinaka is the star. And with Hase leading the work, this was technically excellent. But when Koshinaka would do his escalating spots like his tombstone piledrivers, that was well done as well. These two weren’t afraid of throwing strikes and slaps either. This had a bit of everything because both are so well-rounded. And while it’s hard to sum the match up in individual spots, they craft a hell of a compelling match. Hase scored a much needed win to keep him in contention for the looming finals. He is the champion and pride is at stake. ***3/4
Kengo Kimura & Tatsumi Fujinami vs. Buzz Sawyer & Owen Hart
Buzz Sawyer is going the extra mile to get noticed by the fans. He bites, he wrestles, he makes weird YIP noises. And the fans seems to respond to all of it. It makes you wonder why he never became a top foreigner like Hansen or Abdullah or Kenny Omega. Someone of that ilk. He certainly has the talent for it. Him teaming with Owen seems like a mis-match somewhat. But I kind of dig it. Owen is the technical showman and Buzz is the madman. It’s a neat contrast. And when given time against one of the best tag teams in the world at this point, the end product is a good match. The match flows simply from one sequence to another. And while it never reaches its potential, it’s a match with good, meat and potatoes action from bell to bell. Kimura pins Owen who just no-sold it afterwards (“Ichiban”). Weird. ***1/4
Big Van Vader & Masa Saito vs. Antonio Inoki & Seiji Sakaguchi
One thing about this match that I noticed was that Vader was doing a lot of the heavy work. He was considered someone that needed to be carried by the dirt sheets of the time, but he’s not hiding from anything. He is in there working with two pros and matching them in performance. Vader is never the most varied of wrestlers but he quickly learned to do a lot with nothing, even when “green”. He bumps, he sells and he shows off what he can do while retaining that monster energy, opposed to the american way which would be to limit the monster to smaller roles to magnify everything. This is the groundwork for what will come later. But enough about Vader, Sakaguchi is immense in this match. Inoki brought out his old rival and partner to face the new threat of New Japan, and Sakaguchi is smart in his tactics. He ties Vader’s arms in the ropes and attacks him from there, before working the arm more. He and Inoki did an awesome double cross armbreaker spot that Saito had to break up. Then later in the match he protects Inoki from being squashed in the corner by stepping in front of him and physically blocking Vader from his attempts. He and Vader then struggle for balance before the judo expert trips Vader to the ground in what was the spot of the match. Saito doesn’t do much in the match but he is pivotal to the finish where he drags Inoki to the floor and chokes him until the ref declares a double countout. A melee breaks out following while the bell rings. There is a formula to these matches but they are mighty fun. ***1/2
NJPW New Year Golden Series 1988 - Day 23 - 04/02/1988
Top Of The Super Junior I Match: Keiichi Yamada vs. Hiroshi Hase
This is cut short by a few minutes as far as I’m aware but I am not going to miss Hase vs Yamada in this form. Yamada is small but smokes intensity. Think Benoit or Guerrero in 2005. Some animalistic aura that allows their size to be a non-factor. Yamada sicks Hase’s arm with a viscous snap of the arm and locks in a double wrist lock. Hase tries to fight back but Yamada side steps him and spikes him on the floor with a piledriver. Hase hits a backdrop and then throws Yamada on the rail but his arm still hurts. The fans then rally behind Yamada as Hase works the mid-section. Yamada troubles Hase with some flying moves as they reach the final stretch. Big move after big moves all leading to Hase school boying Yamada for the win which pisses Yamada off. Great match. ****
Top Of The Super Junior I Match: Shiro Koshinaka vs. Nobuhiko Takada
This is the feud that defined this era of the Junior heavyweights and this is the final match they would have for 8 years when they would become heavyweight stars. This starts slowly. Takada throws a few warning kicks before they go into an armbreaker sequence with Koshinaka breaking out of it only to get more kicks. Koshinaka does well to defend Takada’s kicks but he’ll leave himself open to a counter himself at times. Like his attempt at hitting a hip attack in the corner which Takada was able to block before he locks in a Fujiwara armbar. The match settled into a slower pace as Koshinaka tried to grind Takada down with his traditional pro style which he is good at. Koshinaka was able to turn a bow and arrow into a camel clutch and followed it up with a figure four leg lock after Takada, overzealously, launched himself into the outside post leg first. They poorly transition from an Fujiwara armbar into the spotty closing stretch which is the only flaw of the match other than the double KO. But the final moments in itself were excellent. Great counters, great nearfalls, all with great crowd heat. It was a shame that the thing that kept Koshinaka out was a ball shot. Realistic but not ideal. This was a top match though. Loose storytelling threads that were all tied together with the chemistry of the wrestlers. ****
Bg Van Vader & Masa Saito vs. Kazuo Yamazaki, Osamu Kido & Yoshiaki Fujiwara
As much as I deteste the idea of Fujiwara losing in a handicap match, this was a pretty fun match. If not simply because of a few minor interactions. The crowd got behind Yamazaki when against Vader. The fans popped big when Saito tried to slam Fujiwara’s head into the ring post to no success. And the brief match up with Vader and Fujiwara was awesome too. **3/4
IWGP Heavyweight Title Match: Antonio Inoki (c) vs. Riki Choshu
This is a kind of WTF. So structurally poor yet the work is really good. If you change a few things, you might have a great match here. Firstly, Choshu attacked Inoki right away, hitting a lariat in the process before then ramming Inoki into the guardrails and the ring posts. Awesome start. The Inoki is able to weather the storm and cut Choshu open with similar methods. Also good. But then Choshu stays on offence, and that doesn’t compute with me. Inoki had Choshu in trouble and they decided to continue with Choshu on top. The visual of Choshu locking in the scorpion hold while bleeding was great but this all came too early. Then Inoki started to work Choshu’s leg with an awkward transition that had the fans audibly stop making noise. And then they go into that nonsense finish. I have read somewhere that Inoki was actually playing into some heel character when it comes to Choshu and Fujinami because of their popularity, so a heel ref that ignores Choshu’s rope break would make sense. But it doesn’t come across well because Inoki never commits to it across the board. He’s the same Inoki with Vader or Saito. You can’t be two things. So if that was the case, this was a blunder, although an ambitious one. Regardless of potential stories being played or whether it was politics taking over business, this was an awkward miss that left me cold. **1/2
NJPW New Year Golden Series 1988 - Day 24 - 05/02/1988
Top Of The Super Junior I Match: Hiroshi Hase vs. Nobuhiko Takada
Despite the setting, this wasn’t anything particularly amazing. The work was good as always with these two but the match never seemed to come together like Koshinaka vs Takada did. The moves felt put together rather than flowingly. And there wasn’t much drama there, ultimately. The double count-out finish was somewhat unexpected but it seems they wanted to protect Takada while letting Hase advance to the finals. ***
WWF The Main Event - 05/02/1988
WWF Intercontinental Title Match: The Honky Tonk Man (w/Jimmy Hart & Peggy Sue) (c) vs. Randy Savage (w/Miss Elizabeth)
This is pretty crazy in terms of heat, this is the peak of the WWF right here. It’s very understandable why Honky Tonk Man refuses to lose the belt on this show. But it didn’t matter as Savage beat the crap out of him and Jimmy Hart anyway. And Savage will be given the WWF title as a makeshift anyway. This is a short but effective match with an incredible angle afterwards. Honky gets his comeuppance but keeps the belt, which is what he wanted. It’s a win-win situation which is rare when politics come to the forefront. ***
WWF World Heavyweight Title Match: Hulk Hogan (c) vs. Andre The Giant (w/Ted DiBiase & Virgil)
Iconic in many ways. Not a great match by any means, but it tells the story it needs. Andre is dangerous but Hogan knows how to beat him and teases doing so, but this time Andre is able to beat Hogan finally. Or did he? As the famous angle goes, Hogan gets the shoulder up at two and is counted down anyway. Andre wins the title but unjustly. Twin refs. Corrupt refs. The Million Dollar Man buys his way to the title. Madness. **1/2
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