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

[Loss]

Talk about it here.

[MJH]

Well... this is certainly special, though I'm not sure how 'great' it is.

The opening few sequences set everything up perfectly; the slap, the casual, emphatic slam, the ear boxing in the corner and Vader no selling the shots before one big one sends Inoki down. The German suplex is, of course, infamous, but people forget both how early it is in the match (about 1/3rd of the way through) and that within thirty seconds Vader is calling a transition for Inoki into his (Inoki's) only real sustained run of offence leading into Vader juicing. Vader quickly takes over by punching his way out of a cover, kills Inoki with a huge chokeslam, Vader bomb and moonsault... and then another quick transition into a weak slam and the sudden armbar finish. The lay-out of the match is all over the place, really, even by what I've come to expect from most of Vader's work. You can't call Inoki on them as it's clearly Vader leading him through everything.

I mean, the match is good, and more importantly it's very, very memorable and a strong spectacle... but as a wrestling match I can't really call it great at all.