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[1983-04-21-NJPW] Tatsumi Fujinami vs Riki Choshu


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  • 1 year later...

Choshu now parades that champion’s confidence and immediately tries to hammer home the nail in the coffin but Fujinami avoids the lariat and cools Riki off with a figure-four leglock. At one point, Fujinami gets cheeky and tries to apply Choshu’s sasori-gatame but Riki smacks him in the face as if to bring him back down to earth. The selling here by Choshu is great as he hangs close to the ropes, limping about and forcing the referee’s hand. The pace of the match downshifts as they jockey for position on the mat but business picks up again when the hot-tempered Choshu starts putting the boots to Fujinami’s leg. Fujinami’s able to catch a foot and take him down with the dragon screw legwhip, transitioning into a front mount and slapping away. There’s an unintentionally laughable spot where Fujinami misses the dropkick and Choshu calmly walks over and suplexes him. He alternates between attempting the sasori-gatame and suplexing Fujinami, the two rivals more or less throwing themselves at each other in a blue collar ballet. Choshu counters the sleeper with a backdrop suplex and he’s able to lock in the sasori-gatame, hitting a couple of lariats before re-applying it. Again, that frustration over Fujinami not submitting rears its ugly head and Choshu slams Tatsumi on the guardrail, tying him up and retaining the title via countout. Fujinami tries going after Choshu after the match but the champ is able to skid by. Really good stuff.

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  • GSR changed the title to [1983-04-21-NJPW] Tatsumi Fujinami vs Riki Choshu
  • 3 months later...

The first thing I want to say is that the 1st time I've watched the match, I found it overrated. I wouldn't have even judged it to be a great one. I've just watched it a second time and Ioved it. I'm always amazed at how Choshu gets a humengous crowd ovation when he arrives. I watched a wrestling video in which a Frenchman explained that after Inoki, Choshu was the one who received the biggest ovations from the public. You think it's true? To get back to the match, I must say that I was a bit like a mark. Indeed, I really took Fujinami for a brave guy and Choshu for an asshole who attacks the injured leg. Besides, I was a little disgusted when Choshu decided to leave his opponent out of the ring to get an easy win by count out. Fujinami trying to avoid the sharpsooter by all means is a great story. It may be the best match of the year in New Japan. Anyway, I even prefer this match to the classic that Jumbo and Flair will have that year. Great stuff here.

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  • 7 months later...

Less nuances in the grappling here than in the previous match, but you do get a more focused attack from Choshu on Fujinami's bandaged knee. Starting with the extended figure four segment is cool, and watching them work that and reverse it is fun. Both of them limp once the hold is broken but since Fujinami already had that injury, that becomes the focus of the match. Fujinami's desperation as he tries to defend his knee is a side that he doesn't show often, but he does it amazingly. The squirming to get out of the sasori-gatame is incredible, makes it feel like a matter of life and death. I enjoyed this about as much as their previous match, even though this told a completely different story. A truly great series of matches.

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  • 4 years later...

This is the second match of the Riki Choshu vs Tatsumi Fujinami trilogy of 1983, you can see the review of the first one, that I did yesterday if you want to check it out, it will help you understand why this match is so important for the rivalry going forward and also why this match is pivotal for Tatsumi Fujinami, if you haven’t read that here’s a brief summary of the match. Riki Choshu just manhandled Fujinami, he was just unstoppable and Tatsumi couldn’t do anything about it, the pioneer of the sharpshooter had the performance of a lifetime against the wrestler I’m making the case for, Fujinami’s selling was outstanding, he made Choshu look great.

Fujinami was incredibly unselfish and did the job perfectly, Choshu won but the crowd was always in Fujinami’s side throughout the contest and with that out of the way let’s go to today’s match, it happened just 18 days after the last one so everyone has the match previously mentioned in mind, we have a much more aggressive Fujinami trying to overwhelm his opponent with a flurry of offense including a sharpshooter that he couldn’t execute successfully, after that Riki Choshu could regain his balance and keep the match in control with very few exceptions, Fujinami tried it all but he couldn’t put him in trouble at any point since then, Riki Choshu’s style got the better of Fujinami, Choshu battered the man who had conquered the junior division in the past and he made it look easy, if the previous match was a star-making performance this one is showed the world that his dominant victory weeks earlier wasn’t a fluke, in fact, it was the first of many he would have during his career in New Japan and All Japan in the 1980’s, a great performance by wrestling’s hottest heel at the time.

If you enjoyed the first encounter between these two watch it, if you weren’t able to watch the first one because of the video quality please give this match a chance.

 

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