Yoshiaki Fujiwara Died to Those Chains That Imprisoned Him

Yoshiaki Fujiwara/Kazuo Yamazaki vs. Antonio Inoki/Nobuhiko Takada Inoki Festival 12/30/95 - GREAT

Nifty discovery, basically a UWFI tag with Inoki and Fujiwara on opposite sides. This was 2/3 falls and mostly focused on Yamazaki v. Inoki, which is an odd on paper match up. We open with a long Fujiwara v. Inoki grappling section which was the highlight of the match for me, those two have such good charisma, and while Inoki isn't on Fujiwara's level he has the credibility to stay with him. Fujiwara tags in Yamazaki and he Inoki kid of bull rushes him for the pin. Second fall has some Takada v. Yamazaki stuff, which is well executed but not my thing, and they have another Inoki v. Yamazaki showdown which ends with a Yamazaki kick to the face and him pinning Inoki. During the break between rounds Hashimoto comes out and yells at Takada. I kept waiting for the third fall to kick it up a notch, but the second Inoki v. Fujiwara face off wasn't as cool as the first, and Inoki sits in a Fujiwara armbar a bit too long before reversing it into an Octopus for the win. Overall a nifty match which feels a bit out of time in 1995.

COMPLETE AND ACCURATE FUJIWARA