New Footage Friday: New Japan Hand Held 8/3/83

New Japan 8/3/84 Yokosuka, Summer Fight Series

 
Kuniaki Kobayashi vs. El Halcón

MD: Solid juniors match. Both guys come out swinging, Kobayashi with a wild spin kick attempt and Halcon with some cool rolling takedowns. Neither guy is afraid to toss each other into the railing on the outside and they get pretty chippy with each other with headbutts. Kobayashi goes after the mask and this whole thing ends up more heated than you'd expect while they still work a number of quick exchanges and big moves.

PAS: This was fun although had some moments that looked a bit awkward especially by Halcon who looked a bit lost at points. I liked the nasty headbutt by Kobayashi, and Halcon took a nice hard bump into the guard rail. This was the least of the three matches, but that isn't really isn't a criticism.

Yoshiaki Fujiwara vs. Pete Roberts - GREAT

MD: Technical and skilled chain wrestling and mat wrestling here. When they hit, they hit hard (especially Roberts' European uppercuts) but it never reaches a level of real animosity or leaves the realm of sportsmanship. There are a few really nice bits of subtle positioning or counters, including one hammerlock that Fujiwara really gets out of absolutely nowhere and an up and over headscissors by Fujiwara out of an arm hold that's out of the catch footage playbook. Roberts' cravat and 84 Fujiwara's bridges and overall flexibility also both stand out as well. It feels like a very good first chunk of a rounds match that never quite boils over.

PAS: This did feel like a first act to a great match, but it was a very cool first act. I really enjoy Fujiwara testing himself against other mat wizards, and it is fun to watch the variation in style between Roberts WOS stuff and Fujiwara's more shoot wrestling style. I am a fan of well executed knuckle lock sequences and headscissors escapes and we some good ones here, and a couple of nasty Roberts uppercuts as the match moved on. Abrupt ending kept this from top tier Fujiwara status, Fujiwara is such a master of finished that a roll up out of nowhere is pretty disappointing. Still a fun discovery as we don't have a ton of Fujiwara from this early

Fit Finlay vs. Tiger Mask

MD: Great bullying performance by Finlay here. He targets the arm early on and uses his relative size and power to really tear it apart, including lifting armbars and an awesome dropkick to a held arm where the physics shouldn't work but it still looked great. Nothing sportsmanlike here, as he's more than happy to slam it over guardrail too. When they move into the finishing stretch, it's one huge bomb after the next. Interesting that both this and the Halcon match ended with lucha style quebradoras.

PAS: I loved this, it was one of my favorite New Japan Tiger Mask matches. Finlay is an absolute savage going after Tiger Mask's arm, slamming it, cranking it, smashing it into a guardrail, just focused and violent limb work. Sayama hits all of his super athletic stuff really cleanly, kicks looked good, reversals were slick. Finlay matches him in the fast spots, including bolting up to the top rope for a missed headbutt with crazy speed. I usually don't say this about juniors matches, but I would have liked an even crazier finishing run. But these guys had great charisma and there feels like an alternative world big match Finlay vs. Tiger Mask feud which would have been even greater then Dynamite vs. Tiger Mask.

COMPLETE AND ACCURATE FINLAY

COMPLETE AND ACCURATE FUJIWARA