MOTW 41: Big Van Vader vs Riki Choshu
“MOTW #41: Big Van Vader vs Riki Choshu” - ink & digital illustration
Hi pals! Back again for your regularly scheduled, 41st instalment of our ‘Match of the Week’ illustration series & I’m back on the Vader train!
This tremendously violent, manly Hoss-Fight of a match took place on June 27th, 1989 at Day 9 of New Japan Pro Wrestling’s ‘Summer Fight Series 1989’ at the Nakajima Sports Centre in Hokkaido.
Now as I frequently do, I went down a bit of a Vader vs Choshu wrasslin’ rabbit hole for this one. This was the 3rd match of theirs that I was able to find & by far my favourite!
From the get go, this was just a furious, hate-filled slug-fest of big, beefy boys. Right from the amazing entrances; Choshu’s iconic theme music & Vader’s epic 80s sci-fi super bad-guy vibes (& equally great Rainbow theme). The intensity & level of heart on display in this really is amazing. It’s a short but wild ride. Amazing to think that Vader is only a few years into his career by this point & already one of the best big men to ever do it!
I believe this actually placed highly on DVDR’s revered ‘Best of the 80s’ list & for good reason! Man, once that claret starts flowing, this just goes to a whole different place! I read a great write up of this match that raved about Vader’s great ‘wounded bear’ selling & I couldn’t agree more!!
The visual of a massive, bloody Vader flying through the air onto Choshu is just an all-timer! I hope I did a serviceable job with my loving tribute to the gruff, stiff, chaotic thrill-ride that this was.
The post-match of a crimson-covered Vader wildin’ through the crowd, throwing whole rows of chairs all over the place, fans running for their lives is equally incredible!
ENJOY!!
P.S. …for anyone looking to find this badass match, it was actually quite tricky. But try searching for “NJPW Summer Fight Series 6.27 1989 Archive.org”
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