Event: New Japan Pro Wrestling
Location: Sumo Hall
Announced Attendance:  11,570

JIP with Mutoh in the ring with Fujinami, Irish whip by Fujinami but Mutoh avoids the dropkick. Mutoh picks up Fujinami and drops him with a piledriver. He picks up Fujinami again, rib breaker, he goes up top but Fujinami rolls out of the way of the moonsault. Mutoh lands on his feet however and hits a rebound crossbody out of the corner for a two count cover. Another rib breaker, Mutoh goes up top again and this time he nails the moonsault. Cover, but it gets a two count. Irish whip by Mutoh but Fujinami kicks him and tags in Choshu. Mutoh ducks the Choshu lariat and delivers a dropkick, German suplex hold by Mutoh but it gets a two count. Mutoh tags in Inoki, Inoki picks up Choshu and hits a backdrop suplex. Inoki picks up Choshu again and applies the Octopus Hold. Choshu inches to his corner and tags in Fujinami, who comes in the ring with a top turnbuckle ax handle shot to Inoki. Dropkick by Fujinami but Inoki ducks the enzigieri and hits one of his own. Inoki tags in Mutoh, dropkick by Mutoh to Fujinami and Fujinami tags in Choshu. Mutoh dropkicks Choshu, Irish whip, but when he goes for another dropkick Choshu catches his legs and applies the Scorpion Deathlock. Inoki breaks it up with an enzigieri to Choshu, and he nails Fujinami with an Abisegeri as he gets into the ring. Mutoh picks up Choshu but Choshu drops him with a backdrop suplex. Cover, and he barely picks up the three count. Your winners: Riki Choshu and Tatsumi Fujinami

Match Thoughts: This was Mutoh's second consecutive Sumo Hall main event. Course this was clipped (full match was a little over 15 minutes), but still a huge moment for Mutoh to team with Inoki to main event in the largest building that New Japan ran at the time. Anyway, I liked that Mutoh held his own against Choshu and Fujinami, but the ending came off flat both to me and the live crowd as Choshu didn't usually finish with the backdrop suplex and it looked like Mutoh got his shoulder up so there was definitely a moment of confusion after the match. Mutoh did get long two counts on both Choshu and Fujinami which is a plus as they were two of the top wrestlers in New Japan though, but Mutoh was definitely over-shadowed in this match star-power wise and I wonder if at the time he seemed a bit out of place as he hadn't picked up any really big singles wins against New Japan wrestlers up to this point. That is a lot to get out of a three minute clipped version of a match, but that is what I do. Score: N/A

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