NEW JAPAN PRO WRESTLING KING OF SPORTS, DVDVR 80s Project

[(Wrestling KO) Mike]

Shinya Hashimoto vs. Victor Zangiev (4/24/89)

One of the best short matches I have ever seen; Zangiev outclassing and slowly frustrating Hashimoto was fantastic. Zangiev dominated most of the match, so he didn't sell too much, but when he did he looked good. Figure-4 selling at the end was top notch stuff. That modified armbar spot followed by Zangiev escaping the head scissors was easily the highlight of the match. After that, you think "how is Hashimoto going to beat this freak?!?" Camera work during that sequence was great, as well. Grappling was ultra intense. I don't see this falling out of the top 20.

[(Wrestling KO) Mike]

Antonio Inoki vs. Riki Choshu (2/22/89)

This was really good, maybe even great. Choshu's a beast and is quickly becoming one of my favorite wrestlers. Here he just annihilated Inoki with backdrop suplexes and lariats. Even his lower level offense, such as the headscissors, looked vicious. Inoki slowly chopping down Choshu with head kicks was brilliant, mostly because of Choshu's selling. Both guys did a great job trading punches and headbutts. I'm not exactly sure how important the finish was, but it reminded me of Austin/Rock WM19. Seeing the legendary Inoki get dragged to the back was quite the visual.

[(Wrestling KO) Mike]

Riki Choshu & Takayuki Iizuka vs. Super Strong Machine & George Takano (7/13/89)

This didn't look like much on paper, but actually ended up being pretty great and could finish in my top 20. This had the usual back and forth action you'd expect to see in a big late 80s/early 90s NJ tag, however, thanks to Iizuka, a young lion, the match also had some depth. Iizuka's a slug these days, but here he looked almost as good as '95 Ohtani. Everyone worked hard, there was no down time and the finish was spectacular.

[(Wrestling KO) Mike]

Tiger Mask vs. Dynamite Kid (1/28/82)

Hadn't seen this one before. I wouldn't call this a good match, but it was perfectly acceptable juniors wrestling and better than 4/23/81 and 4/21/83. Unlike those two matches, this had some direction, at least until the last few minutes. Dynamite, unable to contain TM, would slowly get more and more frustrated. This led to him eventually trying to strangle his opponent. DK would eventually get the big break by way of a piledriver, but seconds later, TM would be back on offense and the story would go out the window. DK bumped well and they managed to screw up only one spot, so if things didn't fall apart at the end, this could have been good, maybe even very good. Of course, I might be reading too much into things and they were simply trading spots throughout the entire match.