Antonio Inoki & Giant Baba vs. Mil Mascaras & Spiros Arion

[8.0] "Just wonderful, when Inoki and Mascaras are both in the ring it's just pure bliss. A shame it was the only time they both crossed paths. Arion & Baba are the typical hard knocking guys here and don't do much really as all eyes are set on the wonderful showdown between Inoki and Mascaras. The first fall is easily the best one !"

[8.0] "We have ~20:21. Very strong. Arion actually isn't of much importance here, though he's eminently competent. His most important role is getting smashed up by Baba once Baba gets the tag in the second fall. Baba has good segments throughout, but the hottest thing is here is Mascaras and Inoki. Mascaras works well with Baba, and he and Mascaras get very riled and fiery and work excellently together. 4/5"

[10.0] "Technical masterclass. Very sports-like. Even the psychology and body language. At first, I wasn't sure about the lack of a face vs. heel dynamic, but it turned out great. One of those old matches that modern fans can easily enjoy. Despite being very technical at times, it's also short and fast-paced by 70s standards. Even the mat stuff has fast-paced counters. It has a very modern feel, especially for something from the 70s. Funny how there's no clear face-heel dynamic and it's a full-on sports-based technical match, yet the psychology is so strong it still tells stories. It reminded me of pre-early 50s NWA stuff. At times, it even felt almost shoot-style. This definitely was a Mil Máscaras show. I'd heard a lot of things about him, and now it's understandable why. Excited to watch more of him. I wasn't sure whether to rate it a 9 or a 10. Technically, it feels like a **** 3/4 match because it doesn't have any ***** worthy moments although some do come close, but overall, it's such a perfectly done bout that I have to give it a *****."

[7.0] "Very good match. Fascinating point in time here and it makes the match even more interesting. Mil was legit in there and had almost a mini singles match with Inoki. Baba was very athletic at this point. Mil smacks Baba at one point. The action escalates well and gets very intense. The finish of the third fall with Inoki and Baba was really cool. Easy to see why fans loved them."

[6.0] "Great grappling and mat wrestling in the opening minutes with Inoki and Mascaras. Baba and Arion follow but things slow down and not for the better. But Mascaras joins in with Baba and we see Baba use excellent psychology of his size verse the smaller Mil. the tap kick to the head while Mil is on the mat plotting was excellent. Mascaras like a worm wriggles wherever he can to try and get the advantage on the monstrous Baba. Mascaras scores fall one on Inoki only to see Arion get pinned quickly thereafter by Baba to tie it up. We get a double abdominal stretch a few minutes later to give BI the win. This was a solid match. Everyone played to their strengths perfectly to move the story along. ***1/4"

[10.0] "A great tag team match. It's great on its own but I must confess that the sight of Antonio Inoki and Giant Baba (the founders of New Japan and All Japan) teaming up before they made their true marks on history made me mark out wildly."

[8.0] "The first falls was grapple centric. which was pretty good, solid work, though I am happy it got into a higher gear for the next two falls. The second fall was short but sweet, Inoki did some powerful suplexes on Mil Mascaras, and once Mascaras tagged out he really took it to Spiros Arion. For the third fall we got more of Baba, who was much more athletic then I am used to seeing him. By the end, the native team defeated the other two in submissions (the official fall was from Mil Mascaras subbing to Inoki in the octopus hold). ****"

[7.0] "It was entertaining, had some interesting moments with a higher pace, but anything really special. Good."

[6.0] "The first fall is mostly worked as a pure grappling exhibition. The opening between Inoki and Mascaras is fascinating in that its a unique competitive mat based style that is not based around the same rest holds over and over. It is such a pure grappling match that late in the fall when Mascaras and Baba start trading strikes you actually think they might be shooting on each other. Mascaras takes the first fall on Inoki after some flying headbutts and dropkicks. The Baba & Inoki team get the second after a top rope stomp from Baba. The final fall is worked at a much more frenetic pace but its not long before Inoki catches Mascaras in the octopus stretch to get the victory. This is an odd match where the slower paced beginning is actually more enjoyable to me than the finishing stretch."

[8.0] "The matwork and chain wrestling between Inoki and Mascaras in the beginning is top notch. Love the slap from Mascaras to Baba that might pissed off the giant. Too bad they clipped a bit of Inoki/Mascaras in the beginning of the second fall."

[9.0] "Man, Mil Mascaras is crazy good. That mat-work with Inoki in the beginning and then Double-Leg Takedown on Baba of all people is great. Awesome match."

[6.0] "This is a defense of B-I Cannon's NWA International Tag Team titles. There is slight clipping but nothing major. Their opponents seem an unlikely pairing without context, which makes sense when you know what led to this match. The previous year, JWA competitor the IWE held a fan poll to gauge interest in the top ten gaijin performers that hadn't yet worked Japan, and that Japanese fans wanted to see. Arion placed first, and Mascaras second... and then the JWA, with their superior connections and pocketbook, swooped in and either booked or paid to stay home all those who took the offer (IWE would only ever get #10, Baron von Raschke, due to their AWA partnership). Arion was deeply resentful of Mascaras' far greater press reception than his; even though Arion had placed first, Mascaras had the advantage of years of magazine coverage, most notably in Gong, whose editor-in-chief Kosuke Takeuchi had featured him fifty times before he ever stepped foot in the country. Besides a 1974 series which saw the WWWF collaborate with AJPW, Arion would never work Japan again after this tour. Now, about the match itself. The best part about it is the Inoki/Mascaras pairing. It is something that could have only happened at this point in time, and there's a compatibility between their styles that makes that a shame, in my opinion (even if their respective egos in subsequent years would have inevitably reared their ugly heads, to the detriment of whatever hypothetical matches they may have had). Arion is fine but adds almost nothing, and the Baba-Mascaras matchup is fun but it's because of the latter. The circumstances that brought these two to Japan are probably why the crowd is pretty much a non-factor, sadly. Whatever you think of Mascaras' later work in AJPW, I think we can all agree that his brother was a far better tag partner for him. ***-***1/4"