Vader vs Antonio Inoki, NJPW Tokyo Dome 01/04/96 Options

[Loss]

Talk about it here.

[Loss]

The harpsichord player in the pre-match is amazing, and it's kind of hard not to get sucked into the aura of Inoki just by watching how much people love him. It's amazing to me that he was still using his disco entrance music in 1996 after all those years. Anyway, this is a war. Even the cameraman seems startled by Vader's slap at the beginning of the match. This is famous for the German suplex spot, which is awesome, but there is lots to love about this match aside from that. Inoki gives an inspired performance. I love his apron desperation sleeper. Vader is always great when there is an elevated ramp nearby of course, taking a nice backdrop into the ring, and both guys are a bloody mess. Fantastic match.

I'm interested in making a comp to the Shawn match at Summerslam, as Shawn is younger and way less limited than Inoki. We'll see how that goes.