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Big Van Vader and Masa Saito vs. Seiji Sakaguchi and Antonio Inoki
on February 1st, 1988 Event: New Japan TV Taping Vader and Inoki start things off. Punches by Vader, Irish whip, and Vader delivers a Vader Attack. Vader picks up Inoki and applies an armbar but Inoki gets out of it and puts Vader in an armbreaker. Military press slam by Vader and he goes for a splash, but Inoki gets his knees up. Inoki tags in Sakaguchi while Vader tags in Saito. Wristlock by Sakaguchi but Saito gets him into the corner. Sakaguchi reverses positions with him and they struggle for position. Saito tags in Vader, and Vader punches Sakaguchi into the corner. Sakaguchi reverses it and knees Vader in the head. The two trade blows, kick to the stomach by Vader but Sakaguchi throws him into the corner. Sakaguchi tags in Inoki, they tie-up, and Vader clubs Inoki in the corner. Vader tags in Saito, backdrop suplex by Saito onto Inoki and he goes for a Scorpion Deathlock but Sakaguchi runs in and breaks it up. Saito gets Inoki back into the corner but Inoki fights out of it with a series of punches. Inoki tags in Sakaguchi, knee by Sakaguchi and he delivers a hiptoss. Irish whip by Sakaguchi and he knees Saito in the chest. Saito manages to tag in Vader, and he trades blows with Sakaguchi. Irish whip by Sakaguchi but Vader knocks him down with a Vader Crush. Vader waits for Sakaguchi to get up, tie-up, armbar by Sakaguchi and he tags in Inoki. Inoki comes off the top turnbuckle with a chop to Vader's arm and he applies the cross armbreaker. Sakaguchi comes in the ring and applies a cross armbreaker to his other arm, but Saito quickly breaks it up. Headbutt by Vader onto Inoki but Inoki gets Vader back into his corner and Sakaguchi snaps his neck over the top rope. Vader comes back with clubbing blows to Inoki, Irish whip, and Vader delivers a lariat. Throat thrusts by Vader and he tags in Saito, who kicks Inoki repeatedly in the back. Inoki gets away from him and tags in Sakaguchi, Saito clubs on Sakaguchi, snapmare, and he chokes Sakaguchi with both hands repeatedly. Saito tags in Vader, Irish whip by Vader and he shoulderblocks Sakaguchi, but Sakaguchi doesn't go down. A Vader Attack does the trick, snapmare by Vader but Sakaguchi gets out of the way of the elbow drop and tags in Inoki. Vader clubs Inoki hard in the head, Irish whip by Vader but Inoki avoids the body splash and hits a back bodydrop. Armdrag by Inoki and he delivers an enzigieri, sending Vader out of the ring. Inoki goes out after him but Saito runs over to help Vader. Inoki rolls back in the ring with Vader slowly following, and Vader puts Inoki in the Tree of Woe. Sakaguchi comes in the ring to protect Inoki, and he lets Inoki down out of the corner. Vader charges Sakaguchi but Sakaguchi stops him and drives Vader to the mat. Saito runs in and attacks Sakaguchi, and both he and Vader club Sakaguchi. Vader throws Sakaguchi out of the ring and goes out after him, while Saito and Inoki battle on the other side of the floor. The referee is counting and both wrestlers are counted out. Post match: They continue brawling for several minutes until the dojo wrestlers break them up. Match Thoughts: An acceptable match and main event, but man New Japan tag team matches were structured different then most other tag matches I have seen. Anything resembling long term selling is completely thrown out the window, and even the short term selling is suspect. There were many times they seemed to be on slightly different pages which led to some slower awkward moments, but the inclusion of Sakaguchi might have caused this as up to this point Vader/Inoki and Saito/Inoki had been wrestling pretty consistently the last few months and had pretty good chemistry. The end was expected as all four of these guys were extremely protected in New Japan. The real moment of the match was Sakaguchi running into the ring to protect Inoki when he was in the Tree of Woe, the crowd reacted perfectly to that entire segment and it really put over how much respect Sakaguchi has for Inoki. Vader was fun as always even if Sakaguchi didn't take his moves as well as Inoki does, and overall it was decent but far from a must see match. Score: 6.0
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