Assorted Rare NJPW TV

 This channel is uploading old AJPW and NJPW TV material, most of which is pretty rare. It seems that he takes all NJPW videos offline after a few hours, so download everything as soon as you can.

Antonio Inoki vs. Bearcat Wright, NJPW 10/31/1975

The legendary Bearcat Wright was quite old and past his prime here, although he still was able to look like a menacing dude. He had great looking headbutts, and his choking actually looked really vicious. This felt more like an introduction to the character of Bearcat which sets up a bigger rematch - the brawling after the bell may have been more exciting than anything in the match. Still, footage of Bearcat Wright is a treasure.

Steve Wright vs. Kengo Kimura 12/5/1977

Only about 4 minutes show, but lots of fun, tight wrestling in those 4 minutes. You get the sense Wright had no problem going even against opponents who weren’t familiar with European style wrestling. Wright wins with a super cool kip up into a pin combo.

Tatsumi Fujinami & Osamu Kido vs. Tony Rocco & Chavo Guerrero NJPW 10/13/1978

Real gem of a match. +20 minutes of high end 70s junior wrestling. The 70s style really was awesome, basically a mix of carny matwork, cool suplexes and occasional neat highspots. Really loved Tony Rocco in this, who is such a great carny grappler. Also really dug young spry Chavo, and the Japanese guys are super solid too. We start with about 10 minutes of cool grappling, basically a lot of cool armwhips and pin attempts with some neat scrambling takedowns and blocked moves. Fujinami looks sharp as hell here and throws some great dropkicks. This is 2/3 falls and every fall has a good finish. Loved the crazy 70s dives and big bump at the end. This pretty much rocked.

Yoshiaki Fujiwara vs. Antonio Inoki NJPW 3/16/1989

Didn’t even know this match happened in 1989. It wasn’t an epic, but a nice slice of super enjoyable pro wrestling as you expect from these two. Inoki has great chemistry with Fujiwara on the mat, and he has such a great aura and feel of danger to him, even compared to a guy like Fujiwara. Some very nice matwork here before Fujiwara decides to punch Inoki in the face. These guys continue to throw hands, and when these guys do it it’s way compelling because they actually look like they don’t want to get hit. Fujiwara ends up trying to cut down Inoki using some rough tactics and his hard head, only for Inoki to destroy him very quickly in Inoki-like fashion. Inokis Worlds Biggest Badass shtick matches up really well against Fujiwaras tricky counter artist act.