Schneider Seventies Saturday: Andre the Giant v. Seiji Sakaguchi 3/19/74

Andre the Giant v. Seiji Sakaguchi 3/19/74

At the end of an NJ classics DVD we watched last week they showed highlights of what looked like an awesome Andre the Giant v. Antonio Inoki match. The wonderful thing about being a wrestling fan in 2007 is that you see highlights like that, you can jump on the internet and for 20 bucks get 6 Andre the Giant in the 70's and 80's DVD, and they will be at your house a week later. This is the first 70's Andre I have seen (outside of I like to Hurt People)and Christ on the Crucifix is he awesome.



The match opens with a ton of standing hold reversal, almost like standing matwork. Sakaguchi and Andre working counters and reversals around standing wristlocks and headlocks. They do this great sequence with Sakaguchi trying to hiptoss Andre and Andre countering into a abdominal stretch. Sakaguchi has really great execution on basic things, great looking headlock, great looking overhand wristlock, great looking punches and chops.

I have been watching a bunch of Khali v. Cena match ups in the last couple of days, and while watching this Andre doesn't really remind me of Khali as much as he reminds me of Cena. Both guys strengths lie in their ability to realistically make their opponents look great. Andre is taking punches and chops from Sakaguchi and the way he whips his head back and steps slightly backward, it looks like Sakaguchi is just killing him with shots. Andre also takes really simple bumps well, flying hard into the turnbuckles on irish whips, flipping over big on armdrags.

They breakdown into a brawl at the end, with Andre's second pulling Sakaguchi to the floor, I don't know who that guy was (although he was way too tall to work as an Andre second) but he does a great sell where he gets hit and his combover flops off. Andre and Sakaguchi brawl on the floor and Andre is throwing trainees left and right like The Thing in a Fantastic Four comic. When they finally get broken up he struts around the ring with his arms raised yelling "I am the winnah" in an amazingly dickish way. I never thought about Andre as Tully, but I wanted to punch him in his mutant head.