Antonio Inoki vs Andre The Giant-NJPW 30.5.1978.

You could classify the matwork here as "NWA" style-in  that holds are worked and worked over until there is a transition and that transition really determines the quality of the match. Sometimes it feels like a waste of time but sometimes it's worth sticking through it. It's worth sticking with it here. Before the match Andre gets annoyed by Inoki getting a bigger reaction than him and refuses to shake hands. He attacks Inoki's arm early on-no sitting in a hold for five minutes but repetead wristlocks and armlocks that really establish his dominance. Andre easily drags Inoki to the middle of the ring once Inoki reaches the ropes and does a cool hammerlock slam, both of which make for cool visuals. Andre gets frustrated with the ref over.....something, leaving himself open to Inoki who goes for his leg, thereby establishing Inoki could get in control that way. When Andre goes to attack Inoki's arm again Inoki tries to kick away at Andre's legs, but they don't transition into Inoki's control quite yet. Eventually Inoki manages to counter Andre's armlock with a Headscissors-which looks amazing. Andre then manages to cross over Inoki's legs and changes his focus on attacking them. Inoki eventually manages to counter that with a Keylock-another big visual. They do tease Andre countering it a couple of times but before countering it Inoki turns him back into the Keylock to further establish the armwork. Once Andre does pick Inoki up into the air instead of placing him on the top rope like the norm is in 70s matches he throws him out of the ring, putting over the peril of the situation. Andre nurses his arm for a bit but Inoki quickly returns to the ring and we get to the finishing stretch, with Inoki nailing a couple of big Enzuigirs that connected well and Andre doing a Suplex and a ot of headbutts. I particularly liked the Canadian Backbreaker counter where Inoki pushed the corner-post instead of the ropes to counter Andre into a Back Body Drop. Unfortunately politics get in the way here-as Inoki can't even get a visual count-out win, Andre immediately no-sells him and only loses because he started brawling with a remember wrestler ringside, then gets back in the ring and lays out Inoki to get his heat back. Damn that 50/50 booking :) Very good match based around strategy, though I doubt Andre had the skills to produce anything truly great with lots of matwork. ***1/2

Antonio Inoki vs Andre The Giant-NJPW 1.6.1979.

The opening is fascinating-Fujinami's leg is injured and Inoki goed to check on him. You could interpret is as Inoki being worried about his dear student, kicking him to test the strength of his leg, seeing he cannot fight Andre as he is and bravely stepping up and challenging Andre. You could also interpret it as him further injuring Fujinami, stealing his apotlight and conning everyone into cheering him by successfully BSing them. Talk about art imitating life. This was worked differently than their 1976 match and played to Andre's strengths more (and I have to say matches like this one are making me appreciate him a lot more). The match starts with Andre just mauling Inoki, using his size abd clubbibg flows to punish him. Inoki goes after Andre's legs because really what else is he gonna do? This match serves as a great example of what Andre could do-he doesn't really need to take a Back Body Drop, a Sunset Flip and a Backslide. Yet they manage to believably work all of them in AND all of them look good and fluid! Andre's acting here was great-I loved his evil laugh when he took Inoki down, as if he'd finally figured out how to stop him, him telling the referee Inoki's leaning onto the ropes in his Back Suplex attempt only to cheapshot Inoki as soon as the ref was out of position, and more than anything the moment where he became frustrated the crowd was cheering for Inoki and left the ring and went into the crowd. Seeing the people flee from a giant was surreal, like something out of a Godzilla film. But Inoki deserves a lot of credit too cause I doubt anyone else could push Andre to all of that and react to him as perfectly as Inoki did. When Andre leaves the ring OF COURSE Inoki is going to start stomping on him and go all out. And when Andre pushes him against the ropes he'll use them for these amazingly athletic counters and kicks that are hard to even properly describe. Andre also did a Bow and Arrow and a Surboard/Romero Special which just shows you how preposterous this match was-but when he did the bow arrow Inoki followed it up with picture perfect selling-his body language conveyed a giant man doing a back focused submission as good as humanly possible. And when Andre overreached with the surfboard Inoki urgently climbed to the top rope knowing how rare of a opportunity he has. Even the non-finish has Hansen coming in and them having a really fun brawl. Great match. ****