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Post by stunninggrover on Jan 9, 2018 22:36:05 GMT -5
Antonio Inoki was the founder and top star of New Japan Pro Wrestling and one of the two most famous Japanese pro wrestlers at the time (All Japan’s Giant Baba was the other one). Billy Robinson is viewed by many as one of the top workers to hail from England. Billy Robinson was from Manchester, England and was one of the top workers of the 1970s. Inoki wasn’t necessarily known for his great in-ring performances, but he would have the occasional classic with the right opponent. This was one of those instances where Inoki faced the right opponent and had a memorable match. This match was for the NWF Heavyweight Title. One of the highlights of the first fall was when Inoki and Robinson traded stiff elbow smashes until Robinson decided to execute a suplex that sent both men over the top rope to the outside. The rest of the first fall mostly saw a lot of mat-based action, but also the occasional near fall. As usual with Robinson matches, everything looked like a real struggle where both men had to fight to survive. Rumour has it that Robinson wasn’t fully cooperative in this match (and in general). Perhaps that’s why things looked like a real struggle. Robinson’s selling for Inoki’s dropkicks looked tremendous though. Robinson scored a pinfall victory in the first fall. Inoki sold it well with a shocked look on his face and the crowd applauded Robinson’s accomplishment respectfully. The hard-fought first fall drained Robinson’s energy and Inoki knew he had to fight back with great urgency to score the equalizing fall. Robinson kept fighting though. It took Inoki a long time to score the win in the second fall. They had only less than a minute left for the third fall before the time limit expires and they were mostly trading stiff elbow smashes before the final bell rang. 1975 Match of the Year Candidate. ****¾
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Post by childs on Jan 12, 2018 11:41:48 GMT -5
I don't know the extent of Robinson's refusal to play ball, but this match has always stood out for the sense of fierce competition. Robinson was simply the best offensive wrestler of the 1970s. Inoki was at his physical peak and could really go when pushed. Together, they produced one of the best, most distinctive matches of the decade. Easy nomination,
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Post by El Mckell on Feb 3, 2018 7:55:14 GMT -5
This isn't just a 1975 match of the year candidate as grover says, to me it's the clear 1975 MOTY. An hour long struggle that goes from competitive matwork to your usual Billy Robinson suplexes and neckbreakers to two guys elbowing and stomping the shit out of eachother. To me it's the Billy Robinson performance to check out.
****3/4 thirded
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Post by jetlag on Mar 28, 2018 7:25:06 GMT -5
This was a little long. Robinson is so great to watch though. Not only did the holds they were using here look clinical, it was also fascinating to watch them zoning in whenever an opening for a potential finish presented. Robinson looked ultra slick and his escapes were great without being overly showy or contrived. Robinson coming up with different ways to go for the Butterfly Suplex was also highly entertaining. There are some slow parts and meandering. I thought it took Inoki a little long to start raising his fist and firing up the heat. Then he starts throwing hands, but Robinson makes him do a more generic sequence involving armdrags and a dropkick. I also disliked how Inoki didn't sell any exhaustion. Guess they were a little over their heads here going 60.
I found this jdw post which I guess explains why parts of the match came across as awkward:
http://prowrestlingo...632-giant-baba/
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Post by tetsujin on Sept 6, 2018 8:43:44 GMT -5
Watched this yesterday for the first time and oh my god. I don't think I've seen a better strong style match before, and I don't think I will in the future. Every minute was a delight, with all-time legendary matwork and millions (and millions!) of details to appreciate. The first fall could be a ***** match by itself, no hiperbole here. The only thing that makes me not going with the full five on the whole match was Inoki's mediocre long-time selling (and sometimes his short-time selling too: the tombstone spot). But fuck, this is a masterpiece. I can believe such a complex match with soooo many things in soooo many minutes is that great. ****3/4 and top 50 at minimum. Maybe even top 25, we'll see. Holy shit.
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Post by makaiclub on May 12, 2021 12:29:40 GMT -5
This is quite famous for Robinson not playing with Inoki as much as Inoki would've liked. Robinson stated himself that he challenged Inoki to beat him in the ring if he wanted to win the match. And they went to a draw, so that might tell some tales in of itself. But in saying that, this was a clinical masterpiece. The grappling was highly combative with snugly applied holds and slick counters. The headscissors section was a brilliant example of that. Inoki tightly applied the hold and Robinson spent nearly 5 minutes trying and failing to get out of it with all of his might, even getting frustrated, pulling a little tamptum in the middle of it all. Inoki was great as well in keeping his grip. Robinson stood on his ankle plenty of times and grabbed and twisted his body to escape it but Inoki held on. Lesser men would’ve let go. The closing stretch was excellent. Inoki got desperate and started to fire off hard palm strikes to get Robinson out of his defensive shell, to great success, being able to lock on the Manji Gatame to equal the ties 1-1 just before the 60 minute time limit. *****
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Post by mvz on Oct 30, 2021 5:05:32 GMT -5
Did two 60 minute Antonio Inoki matches land on my list this week? Not sure but this one definitely deserves consideration. One of my only criticisms was that late in the match Inoki’s frustration wasn’t backed up with urgent wrestling but reading about the lack of cooperation makes that understandable.
Anyway this match had a mat-based first fall but with some high spots including a great duplex over the ropes spot. Great ending to fall one and I loved how Robinson immediately went for the same move to capitalize in fall 2. Appreciated the tension in fall 2. I didn’t pick up that it might be legit!
Anyway if people find time to watch this I don’t think they would be disappointed.
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Post by elliott on Aug 30, 2023 0:09:49 GMT -5
Great match but yikes it was 60minutes & felt like it. My favorite 60min matches (Destroyer/Baba & Rock/HHH) just breeze by. This isn't that. It's technically brilliant for sure though.
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Post by gramsci on Jan 16, 2024 16:20:22 GMT -5
Young wrestlers really like these self-indulgent forced epics, huh. There’s enough struggle in the holds to enjoy it, but I guess I don’t like these 70’s matwork based matches. 3rd fall is awesome, but Inoki no sells shit.
***1/4
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Post by fxnj on Jan 17, 2024 16:29:13 GMT -5
This is about as far as you can get from a forced epic.
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Post by elliott on Jan 17, 2024 17:05:34 GMT -5
These young whipper snappers are also in their mid-late 30s and were 15 and 20 years into their careers at this point.  |
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Post by gramsci on Jan 17, 2024 18:29:02 GMT -5
The thing about “young wrestlers” is an ironic comment. What's not ironic is that I do think this match is a forced-epic. It’s too long, with many boring moments working basic holds and pretending they don’t know how to counter them, etc. It's frustrating because there is a lot of good stuff in it too, especially in the third fall.
I guess it’s not for me.
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