Search the Community
Showing results for tags 'Antonio Inoki'.
-
Oh, Tiger, you and your goofy rapier. Tiger ambushes Inoki and pummels him in the face with the butt of his rapier like a goof. Inoki bleeds immediately and Singh goes to town on him throwing chairs in his face and drinking his blood like a vampire. Jeet Singh may be not as intense a brawler as the Sangre Chicanas and Perro Aguayos of this world, but he does the same things they would do: punching and kicking a bloody Inoki in the head, dumping row of chairs on him, etc. Inoki makes comeback by nailing Singh with a random bottle and then throwing punches. You don't think of Inoki as Jerry Lawler but he throws awesome punches and there are some cool exhausted exchanges from their knees here. Both guys were also grimacing to the max, with Inoki's blood painted face being a distorted mask of wrath. They spill to the outside and the double countout ensues but they keep going at it. This was not on the level of your classic bloodbaths due to being a little long and slow but it may be my favourite Inoki/Singh match so far because it gets straight to the point and the action is what you want all the way.
-
This match is a master class in delayed gratification, working and getting over in professional wrestling. Before the bell even rings Inoki potatoes Oki with a punch. They seperate them, and the match starts. They don't just immediately start brawling-there's lots of lock-ups, some of them include hair-brawling, and pretty much all of them ending with the ref coming in between them. You can feel the tension-it legitimately looks like they hate each other but are also simultaneously not trying to lose their temper and get DQed-the wrestling is really good, nifty takedowns, pretty suplexes-but where the match really excells is when all hell breakes loose. Oki hits about Inoki with about a million headbutts-each sold gigantically, knocking Inoki down. Inoki goes down again and again and then fires up. daring Oki to headbutt him some more. His mannerisms are simple and primal which is precisely what makes them so cathartic. When he punches Oki in the comeback for the first time you feel ane explosion of all of the frustation that boiled in you during the FIP section and you remember why people watch so many movies that rely on cliches they're aware of. It's because they work. Inoki Bom-ba-ye. ****1/4
-
Inoki faces the ogre known as Strong Kobayashi again, who now has a creepy mustache too. Inoki was pretty much a bully in the last match, and he's acting outright heelish again. He throws the first punch, cheapshots constantly, goes for the eyes and some pretty nasty chokes and keeps taunting Kobayashi, who is really fired up. There is some really fun grappling again and the crowd really gets into Kobayashi as the face, implausible as it may be. The second half loses direction a little as Kobayashi was working Inoki's back and just... stops doing it. He liked to go for restholds too. The match gets hot again when Inoki bloodies Kobayashi and he fires up big time, going after Inoki with suitably troll-like punches and headbutts, only to be met with that devastating straight punch again. Another fun match in the Inoki resume altough the biggest problem was that you couldn't really buy Kobayashi as having a chance especially after he abandoned his back work strategy. You blew this one by yourself, Shozo.
-
Talk about it here.
-
Talk about it here.
-
Talk about it here.
-
You can take all the workrate wrestling of the world, I'd much rather observe Inoki working a worked shoot in Pakistan. It's no wonder he conned people into thinking some of his fights were real. This match had a lot of "lock ups", but they were more reminiscent of judo lock-ups than pro wrestling lock ups. Basically instead of just conventionally locking up and pushing at each other they were grabbing each other's arm and neck and trying to find an opening and use it to execute a slam or a takedown, so when something actually happened (whether it one wrestler taking another's back or securing a dominant position) it came off as a big deal. The Armbar spot in the first one was a little weird at first as I'm the biggest fan of using armbars like a headlock (especially in a match like this) but Inoki on commentary explained it masterfully when commentating the finish saying the same thing happened in the first round. The finish was Inoki hooking Pahalwan in a Double Wristlock and him refusing to give up, and Pahalwan's Armbar escape was good enough that all was well in the end. *** -
http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xwxas_njpw-1972-karl-gotch-vs-antonio-ino_sport The main event of New Japan's first ever show. No idea how I'd rate it but I had a blast watching it and was particularly fascinated with how the crowd reacted to the action. Gotch's selling of Inoki's Forearms was amusing for what it was and it made me wonder how selling styles changed throughout history. Honestly the work here seems flashy and quite accessible to me, and Gotch showed he was a solid showman as well in his headscissors escape.
-
Talk about it here. -
Ok, so here's the thing. I kinda watched this match. I didn't sit down and stare at the screen for two hours, since not even my love of Inoki is that strong, but I went through the entire match in a span of, idk, 20-30 minutes steadily skipping ahead, because I needed to know what happened in it. And what impressed me more than anything is how badass the whole thing looked-there was prety much an unlimited number of amazing shots. The setting is as big of a part of the match as anything the workers do, as you get these amazing shots of mountains and the ocean while Inoki and Masa Saito are fighting, really it's something you'd expect to see on a "Visit Japan" commercial with no context and just be in awe of what you've just witnessed. The biggest accomplishment of that match is probably its strange allure of a symbiosis between man and nature: Why did this image speak so much to me? Is it the nostalgia of my childhood, where I'd often run around parks with grass fields, (play)fighting and so on....or is it just an universal human feeling, something that we truly all sure, when we see a scene like this, of two men settling their issues by duking it out on grass. Will humans still relate to this picture if those futuristic movies ever turn into real life and we're slowly shut down in our own four walls? The shots reach another level when Inoki starts bleeding: And peak when they burn a bunch on wood on fire to provide lightning for them, really showing their dedication to evoke a scene of cavemen fighting. I guess calling this a shitty match that lasts is easy and the way people got out of even discussing it for so long, but it's about time it's recognized for the incredibly ambitious endeavour it was. These metamodernistic times in which meme wrestling is celebrated so freely give me hope this interpretation won't fall on deaf ears.
-
I'm trying to put into words how much I liked this match but I don't think I'll be able to do this justice. If the match was about ten minutes shorter I think it could've rated it as a top ten match of all time. It's still an absolutely incredible match, an the crowd never really dies but after a certain point they just aren't buying the submissions as much as they did and it's more of a "clap for rope breaks/escapes/general effort" thing. This was a perfect showcase for both wrestler's abilities, the matwork was phenomenal and they managed to escape a perfect sense of one-upmanship. It is a match that manages to excel both at the little things and the big things, there's a moment where Inoki does a bridge and Fujinami tries to drive him to that and I swear Inoki did the most beautiful bridge I've ever seen, the kind of thing that could only be possible because of stuff like this: The crowd was fucking insane, you get shots of people standing up and not leaving their feet for about ten minutes just mesmerized by the drama of the match, Inoki firing up while Fujinami had him in a Figure Four was one of the greatest spots I've ever seen and Fujinami responded appropriately by pushing himself up as far as he could and trying to rip apart Inoki's leg, the struggle over everything was so well done here and the match also served as a great display for their character though I'd find it understable if people used to gigantic bumps for irish whips and WWF wrestling didn't pick it up (not actually trying to call anyone out here fwiw), Fujinami has a chip on his shoulder and while being a great athlete in his own right doesn't really possess Inoki's strength and they play it up really well, Inoki goes for an illegal Sleeper in the beginning and Fujinami sells it like a huge threat, later on Fujinami uses the same maneuver several times but never manages to damage Inoki as much as Inoki had damaged him, I think that came off really well every time Fujinami would grab a hold for a longer period of time where, he'd just come off as the most tenacious wrestler ever, and later in the match when Inoki stars slapping the shit out of him and Fujinami sells it enough so it doesn't come off as no selling (especially with his facial expression) but no sells it enough so the crowd can put his awesome facial expressions together with him refusing to go down to Inoki's strikes and it's this humongous amazing moment and everyone is losing their shit and pro wrestling fucking rules mate. I also find it amusing how Fujinami's character seems to consistent both in his on air presentation and in scummy backstage videos and stories (him slapping Kevin Nash comes to mind, also there was a video where him and Inoki just yell at each other for five minutes and Fujinami responds to Inoki's weak fifth grader bully slap by Bas Ruttening him). ****3/4
-
This was a pure 70s grappling epic with an absolutely molten last 10 minutes or so. The grappling here wasn't intricate or anything, but they worked an ultra tight contest and did a good job bringing the intensity up and down. Most importantly, the match never felt slow or dry, so I'll take this over your Dory Funk Jr snoozefest. Inoki is very dominant early on, running through his holds including a great briding indian deathlock, but then Fujinami slaps him like a bitch and finally starts bringing the fight. I especially liked the sequence where Inoki teases the Butterfly Suplex and goes for a fireman carry. He didn't even hit that butterfly suplex later! Inoki's defensiveness ends up backfiring on him and Fujinami puts him in a Figure 4. The Figure 4 segment eats up a good chunk of thise 35 minuteish match so better have a good book ready. I didn't have a problem with it though because the payoff was strong and Inoki's selling was right on the money. Seeing Fujinami pushing the mythical Inoki to the limit was spectacular and the crowd was surface of the sun level hot for the possible dethroning. The finish was inevitable but atleast we get a massive pop for Fujinami powering out of the Octopus Hold. This went over half an hour with barely a bump in it but it was still totally spectacular pro wrestling.
-
The most impressive thing about this match is that in 90 minutes there is literally no downtime at all. Even the Inoki vs. Choshu matwork was compelling. The crowd heat is insane and the fact that that level of heat was consistently maintained for 90 minutes is even more insane. I would say Fujinami was the MVP with Animal as a close second but everyone was great in it. Incredible match to say the least but one I have had trouble rating because it is difficult to distinguish the individual pairings from the overall story. -
Talk about it here.
-
Talk about it here.
-
1980-12-09 NJPW Antonio Inoki vs Andre the Giant Kyuden Memorial Gymnasium, Fukuoka, Japan ★★ Card It was curious to see a man of Inoki’s standing come across like a mere child, as he did here when faced across from Andre. Obviously Andre’s been in countless matches against smaller men, but at least from what I remember, they’ve mostly been in throwaway squash matches. All his real singles challengers have been bigger - your Hansens, Hogans, Sakaguchis, so the size disparity isn’t so big. Inoki is the first serious opponent who’s been significantly smaller and it certainly was jarring to say the least. It worked in getting across Inoki’s, for lack of a better phrase, “fighting spirit”. Whenever he locked on a move or connected with a strike it felt so much bigger than it would normally. Andre’s offense here also looked tremendous for the most part. Major gripes would be Andre applying too many static holds in the first half of the match and a botched Enzuigiri that missed by several inches but Andre sold like death anyway. Probably not fair but it shows how one wrong move can somewhat ruin a match. This finished with the predictable countout, which they didn’t work towards in any uniquely interesting way, so that would be a demerit too.
-
1980-09-30 NJPW - Fan Appreciation Super Fight Antonio Inoki (c) vs Ken Patera NWF Heavyweight Title Match Nippon Budokan, Tokyo, Japan Card ★★★ Both gave a ton in this match. Patera, great at being the dick heel; that jock bully, also knew when it was time to turn tail and beg off. Sometimes his penchant for big bumping worked against him, as it did at points here, but in the broad strokes it got the desired effect across. Patera opened this up with three massive body slams. Usually these were reserved for humiliating jobbers, but Inoki ate the brunt of these here. Patera trash talking the whole way was gold. Eventually he followed up with a Bar Hug, and this is usually where a match would fall off, but not here. Here is where Inoki shone. Instead of just standing there and taking it, you could see he was enduring the pain but trying to remain calm, calculating his method of escape. He tucked his hand in on the one side and slowly worked it in before suddenly going for the break. He wasn’t free for long as Patera locked the Bear Hug on a second time, but again, Inoki kept his cool and managed to free himself enough to get to the ropes. What I really loved is that while he was in the hold he went to great efforts to steel himself and his expressions. His focus was on escaping the hold, however once free he leant hard into selling the back, doubling over to stretch out the lower back and gingerly moving about the ring which I thought was incredibly effective selling. As they transitioned into the finish it was Inoki in the ascendancy and Patera switched to begging off and selling big. He lulled Inoki in and then sent him to the floor outside where he laid him out with another body slam. Inoki didn’t oversell this, but instead took his time to re-enter the ring. He circled around, coming across like a film action star, milking the moment and building towards the big crescendo. A flash tope back into the ring took Patera by surprise and it wasn’t long before he was felled by the Enziguri and tumbled to the outside. He survived one Octopus Hold, but a flurry of offense by Inoki set up a second, and Patera was too far from the ropes and that was lights out for him. I really enjoyed Patera’s performance here, he did exactly what he should have done and at exactly the right times. But this is a great example of Inoki being Inoki and that being perfect. When it was time to just be a star, Inoki certainly had that in his locker in a way few guys ever did. He oozes cool and that sense of entitlement that I can only assume comes from actually being the boss. Sometimes it works against him, but in big moments, it often is an incredible talent to be able to rely on. -
Talk about it here.
-
Talk about it here.
-
Talk about it here.
-
1980-05-30 NJPW Tatsumi Fujinami vs. Antonio Inoki MSG Series 1980 Match Civic Culture Center, Takamatsu, Kagawa, Japan Card ★★★★ A mouth watering MSG Series matchup here and they did not disappoint. This had that big fight feel you would want and right from the off they shook hands and then Fujinami nailed Inoki with a stiff kick to the leg to set the tone. Without veering over the line Fujinami certainly was the aggressor, and Inoki had to stave him off and keep him contained. They worked at a furious pace and the intensity was reaching a 10. It wasn’t long however before Inoki upped his game to match Fujinami and put him in his place when he started outright tattooing him with some vicious palm strikes right to the face then later on an awesome looking headbutt planted Fujinami firmly in the ropes. Fujinami looked to have the opening he was looking for as he sent Inoki through the ropes and he immediately set off to hit his tope. He hit it cleanly and found himself alone in the ring. Instead of going for the countout victory however he instead swung for the fences with a plancha on a prone Inoki. The camera didn’t catch the impact but seemingly he missed it as this time Inoki was the first to his feet and back in the ring. He caught Fujinami on the apron as he was clambering back onto the apron and hit a huge backdrop suplex, keeping Fujinami’s shoulders to the mat long enough for the three count. I really loved all of this. Inoki so far has had some okay performances, specifically against Hansen, but he hasn’t looked as much of a star as he did in this match. After he hit that headbutt on Fujinami he just stood there and preened like only Inoki can and the crowd were lapping it up. Fujinami, for his part, set the tone for this match and was perfect in his role. If this had a tad more time I definitely could go higher on this match as we barely got over ten minutes of action here, but what a ten minutes.
-
1980-05-23 NJPW Hulk Hogan vs. Antonio Inoki Civic Gymnasium, Hasama, Miyagi, Japan Card ★ It was very interesting to see how Inoki tried to tackle this giant. Hulk had the better of the early stages using his raw strength and power advantage, manhandling Inoki around the ring. Everything was pretty rudimental but it bluntly got across the intended effect. Eventually Inoki unloaded some stiff leg kicks to get the big man off his feet and Hulk was reeling. Before they could really get going though Hogan ran Inoki halfway across the arena towards a lurking Hansen and they went ahead and double team posted him with a ball shot. Dusty ran down to chase Hansen and Hogan off before he and Inoki shook hands. I was into how they worked the first five or so minutes but this just didn’t have enough meat before the shmozz took over and we got the DQ.
-
Talk about it here.
-
Man, I love this matchup. Young Punk Choshu was the best. You can say what you want about Inoki, but he was great at portraying himself as an untouchable badass. You look at some of the stuff Inoki does here and it's no wonder people thought he was a genius. He also always has these crazy facial expressions. I think the first 15 minutes or so of this didn't even have a bump but still ended up mesmerizing pro wrestling. This was worked like a technical battle of megastars so that was really cool. Both guys struggled hard and every movement could possibly lead to a finish which is exactly what you want from a match with really high stakes. Choshu was aggressive and really putting Inoki through the wringer, not just when he throw punches and stomps, but also in his grappling, butting heads when looking up and uncorking a super tight front headlock roll. Inoki came across as calm and cool headed so exactly the perfect counterpart to Choshu's rage. His selling was really strong too, at the beginning of the match he was dominating on the ground, but after Choshu really put the torque on him with the Scorpion Deathlock he was limping and stalling. Seeing the cool headed Inoki getting into desperation mode when Choshu tried the move again was great too. A limping Inoki punching Choshu in the face from the knees was epic and so was Choshu trying to bulldoze the legend with lariats and suplexes. I think if they had continued in that vein the match would've cruised into my all time top 10-20, but instead they slowed down again and went back to the holds. It was still really strong work and they delivered a great, clean finish. For a clash of the titans type match in front of a super hot 80s crowd that was mostly built around matwork this pretty much delivered all you can ask for.
-
Interpromotional matches in Japanese pro-wrestling are the best. This part of the New Japan vs. UWF feud and Takada is here to kick butt and to me he is clearly the star of this match. He puts an absolute beating on Yamada just blasting him with slaps, kicks and hitting him with one of the nastiest tombstone piledrivers I’ve ever seen in my life. Takada is not afraid of throwing hands with Inoki either, however the main focus of this is the Yamada beatdown. Kido is perfectly fine in his invading role as well, but he more so just along for the ride.
