Inoki Festival 1995 (12/30/95)

The whole show is an easy recommendation and a breeze to watch at under two hours. Unfortunately, some of the matches are clipped, like the sweet Kakihara/Ikeda match, but everything delivers on some level, with original Tiger Mask showing off, Nakano/Hokuto trying to kill themselves, and fired up baby versions of Nagata and Nishimura. But, the two matches that really stood out, were the semi-main and the main events. 

Hiroshi Hase vs. Yoji Anjoh

It's Hiroshi Hase sans mustachio, not letting Yoji Anjoh get away with much -- really liked the tension build in the corner, which leads to them both slapping each other around. Hase is smooth as always, using a dope double leg takedown and working his way into an inverted STF. He hooks the leg when Anjoh tries to backdrop him, so that he lands on top when Anjoh still attempts it. Then we get a uranage and the giant swing, sold wonderfully by Anjoh, before eats a second uranage. Anjoh's able to fight out of the Northern Lights suplex attempt, delivering a nasty German, then following up with some great looking knee drops before finally stomping on Hase's face before he applies the leglock for the submission.  

Antonio Inoki & Nobuhiko Takada vs. Yoshiaki Fujiwara & Kazuo Yamazaki

A two-out-of-three falls tag match and a total blast. Nobuhiko Takada was, more or less, there to collect a paycheck but whenever Antonio Inoki was in the ring, the match really lit up, whether it was ground aggression with Yoshiaki Fujiwara, or pissy exchanges with Kazuo Yamazaki. Inoki and Fujiwara do the old man matwork better than most half their age and here, Fujiwara got to show off with some slick takedowns and at one point, really catches Inoki in the chin with one of his sig headbutts. When Yamazaki comes in, he tries to get crazy with Inoki but Inoku quickly gets hold of the reins and pins Yamazaki. During the second fall, Yamazaki calls out Inoki and when Inoki gets the tag, it's his turn to go nuts on Yamazaki but Yamazaki evens the score by kicking Inoki in the head. Yamazaki's still peppering Inoki with punches and kicks during the third fall but Fujiwara starts prepping Inoki's arm for his patented armbar. The finish to the third fall was...uh, strange. Takada breaks up the Fujiwara armbar by kicking Fujiwara in the fucking face, Fujiwara is loopy, Yamazaki injures himself flying into the ring to retaliate, completely missing his spinning wheel kick attempt. And then Inoki puts on the octopus hold to win it. 

Daisuke Ikeda & Takeshi Ono vs. Alexander Otsuka & Satoshi Yoneyama (Inoki Festival, 12/1/96)

For a stiff as day-old catshit BattlARTS exhibition tag, this match ruled. Everyone had a role to play in this, and Ikeda’s willingness to get dumped on his head by Otsuka’s brutal suplexes will never not impress. Yoneyama’s the unknown underdog rocking the Tiger Mask IV pants and for a guy I’d never heard of, my first impression is a thumbs up, as he dished out some punishment as much as he took it, especially in the end against Ikeda. Ono was awesome with his wiliness both on the mat and on his feet slinging kicks. I liked the way he nonchalantly tapped Otsuka with kicks or kick his opponents from the apron. Both he and Ikeda did a good job of patrolling submission holds, so mostly, this was about the fold-up suplexes and hard hits. The finishing stretch was ugly beautiful, as poor Yoneyama tries to quickly submit Ikeda with the front necklock but that backfires and Ikeda solebutt kicks him in the throat, kicks him in the head, and when Yone won’t stay down, he slaps him silly and kicks him back down for good.