Gong chimes and the ref yells its time to fight! Both men do not fear one another and it isn't long before the heavy hitting strikes are unleashed setting the tone for what is a heavy handed and heated contest. Hashimoto punishes the fiery Sasaki with kicks, who in turn hits his own and levels Hashimoto with a follow up lariat showing he isn't afraid or willing to back down from Hashimoto. Battle of power here and a boat load of arrogance too.
Sasaki is in charge keeping Hashimoto down with a sleeper and body scissors then transitions into a cross armbreaker and once Hashimoto struggles to find the ropes Sasaki goes straight back to the sleeper and holds his dominant position even slapping a downed Hashimoto, again showing no fear whatsoever. A Sasaki lariat is met with a well placed Hashimoto chop to the arm and like that Hashimoto regains control and begins the destruction of Sasaki's arm.
Hashimoto lays in the kicks and boots even going to the extreme of laying Sasaki out with a top rope missile dropkick before delivering a DDT. Hashimoto tries his luck again on the top rope but is caught by Sasaki who joins him and eventually powerslams Hashimoto off the top. A follow up lariat only gets a two for Sasaki, so Sasaki hits his own DDT and attempts to lock on the strangle hold gamma but Hashimoto squirms and gets to the ropes. Sasaki feeling like he can keep Hashimoto down hits a powerbomb and a big powerslam before finally locking in the strangle hold. Sasaki can't keep it locked for long and Hashimoto over powers Sasaki and in return totally destroys him with a belly to belly suplex. Totally brutal suplex as Sasaki was dumped as if to say, "I will put you in your place".
Its not enough as Sasaki still has plenty of strength to launch Hashimoto across the ring with a massive throw and again gets the strangle hold gamma applied. Sasaki lauches Hashimoto off the ropes and delivers an all mighty ippon judo throw dropping Hashimoto square on his head and gets a very hot near fall with Hashimoto barely kicking out. Back on their feet, Hashimoto staggered and dazed yet in a flash a sudden spinning leg sweep sends Sasaki crashing down allowing Hashimoto to regain control. Hashimoto uses this chance to lay in some heavy knee strikes that the ref even tells him to lay off with followed up by a big DDT resulting in a close two count, which raises the crowd to their feet. Hashimoto hits a powerful spinning wheel kick sending his whole weight into Sasaki that nets Hashimoto a two count so Hashimoto digs deep and plants Sasaki directly on his head with a tight fisherman buster, which is enough to get the three.
Antonio Inoki gets in to the ring and presents Hashimoto with his world heavyweight belt and reassures a disappointed Sasaki. The match totally flew by, never once being dull and it was a decent length and once it got going it was delivering on the big near falls making for a great match but the finish came just a tad too early. Overall it was quite exciting and a great spectacle of power vs power with experience prevailing in the end.
