AJPW TV December 1990 review 

 

We have made it to the final TV block of 1990. We’re balls deep in the Real World Tag League so basically the entire month is going to be tag matches. Not that makes a huge difference to the ‘tag heavy’ line ups of AJPW cards normally.  

 

December 1, 1990 

 

Taped: November 21, 1990, in Osaka.  

 

Dynamite Kid & Johnny Smith vs. Abdullah the Butcher & Giant Kimala II 

Dynamite’s back is so bad now that he’s about the same mobility levels as Abby. Matches between exciting teams and brawling teams can go different ways. This is an absolute blood bath. Abby is busted wide open before the bell rings. Perhaps predictably, any attempts at wrestling are horrible. Johnny, for all his enthusiasm, is just a budget Bulldog. And Dynamite is fooked.  

Soon fooked becomes properly fooked as he does a massive bladejob. Abby just tortures the poor bastard. The ending of this is a bit strange. The New Bulldogs get Abby into trouble for a few minutes and then he just jabs Johnny in the throat and elbow drops him for the pin. At least tag out? This whole thing felt like a fever dream. 

 

Funk Brothers vs. Land of the Giants 

Oh good, another unclipped Tyler Mane match. What sadist did this? Maybe someone in the office was big on Butch Masters. The crowd, optimists to the last, just want to see Dory Funk put the Spinning Toehold on one of these losers. Terry attempts it and gets kicked off. The bump he takes is over the top rope. I know I rag on wrestlers for doing overblown bumps, but this one made sense. Nitron’s big strong legs kicked him off and Terry always feels slightly out of control on his bumps.  

 

Neither of the big goons can do much of anything so the Funks work around them. During this match I’m doing the mental work of trying to figure out whether Tyler Mane is better or worse than “The Viking” Tony Halme. The trouble with Nitron is that All Japan expect him to sell and he can’t. Whereas Halme couldn’t do basic things like tell his opponent what move was coming.  

 

The Funks put together a decent match and it’s credit to them that, despite being the drizzling shits, neither of the Giants is exposed. Thesz Press puts Nitron away and the Funks gets the win. I would legitimately recommend this as a demonstration of how good wrestlers can work with bad wrestlers. **½ 

 

Dynamite Kid & Johnny Smith vs. Miracle Violence Connection 

What the fuck is this TV show? This is from Korakuen Hall on November 15. Quite why we’ve been treated to double Dynamite this week is anybody’s guess. Dynamite is in better condition here than the other match. Probably because it’s the first match he’s wrestled in a month. Johnny takes most of the match, which is what he’s there for. Dynamite gruffly shouting “come on, Johnny” from the sidelines.  

 

Johnny tries to save his mate from a powerslam at one point and Doc just completely no sells him. I WILL SLAM THIS OLD MAN IF I WANT TO, FUCK YOU. Johnny’s most pointless gift to this match is hitting a missile dropkick, kipping up and then going for the pin. Like, why? Oklahoma Stampede puts Johnny away. This was ok. MVC are good fun to watch them batter people and Dynamite, as I mentioned, looked decent here. Maybe the last time ever. He’s on a tour next year, so I won’t write him off just yet. 

 

We finish with some clips from random matches.  

 

December 8, 1990 

 

Taped: November 25, 1990. We’re in Kanagawa. We quickly go into clips of undercard matches including Kenta Kobashi & Johnny Ace picking up their first dub. Terry Funk out-working Johnny Smith on the mat is nice to see.  

There’s also a sensational scene where a news reporter spots Dynamite Kid reading a Japanese paper. Hearing Dynamite Kid angrily bark at him in Japanese is quite something.  

 

Andre the Giant & Giant Baba vs. Land of the Giants 

EVERYONE IS A GIANT! I had a quick skim through the WON awards for 1990, and this placed P4 in worst match of the year. After a few lock ups, Baba does a drop toehold and boy is it NOT GOOD. Butch works so loose. It’s very weak. Nitron meanwhile prefers clubbing blows. The crowd just boo how shit it looks. At least Masters has chops and such.  

Nitron decides to loudly sell here. “AAAAAAARRRRRGH. AAAARGH. ARARRRRAAAAARGH”. Alright, Iron Mike Sharpe, settle down. Andre, as pointed out before, is very immobile by 1990. Normally the opponents do the work so he can just strike awe into the crowd. Here, the opponents have no idea what they’re doing. The best wrestler in the match is Baba, who is into his 50s and almost totally immobile. 

 

Every time Nitron tags in and I’m like “please don’t”. At least Masters has a few things he can do. Nitron just has nothing. If you’d like to see a match where Andre puts Sabretooth in a bunch of rest holds, this is the match for you brrrrrrrother. Instead of doing something sensible (like double DQ after a couple of minutes), they go over ten minutes. Andre drops the elbow and we’re done. That elbow drop looks worse every time I see it. I’ll go DUD on this. Yeah, it sucked, but what do you expect?  

 

Mitsuharu Misawa & Toshiaki Kawada vs. Stan Hansen & Danny Spivey 

I’m fairly sure Misawa was tagging with Kikuchi on this tour. Googles. No, wait, they had a Super Generation Army tag on night one, but the actual team entered is Misawa & Kawada. Kobashi is teaming with his sidechick Johnny Ace. Kawada gets the biggest entrance pop I’ve heard him ever get. That shows how 1990 changed the fortunes of the Pillars.  

 

Stan is in his “General” mode where he yells instructions at Spivey. And the referee. Misawa really takes it to Hansen here. His elbows look swank. They’re right on point. Misawa’s ability to take out Hansen, then turn his attentions to Spivey and kick his ass too shows he’s now a big star in this company. Kawada does much the same thing, only with less effect on Hansen.  

 

It’s Spivey who wins the match by low bridging Misawa out of the ring and allowing Stan to lariat Kawada for the win. Misawa actually hurt his knee in the process and missed the next couple of shows. This was solid. *** 

 

Miracle Violence Connection vs. Jumbo Tsuruta & Akira Taue 

Taue is really good here. He shows good underdog strength and MVC need to double team to get him into trouble. Everyone in this match is in a hard-hitting mood and it is STIFF, ladies and gentlemen. Gordy and Jumbo smacking each other around in particular. It makes me sad their singles matches never worked out. 

 

Taue gets a kicking, but MVC do protect him by continually having Doc jump him from behind. Doc and Taue have a miscommunication on the hot tag and Doc’s missed clothesline, which connects a bit, is unfortunate. Once Jumbo is in though we are kicking ass to the finish line. All sorts of fun including Taue blocking the Oklahoma Stampede and Gordy saving Doc after the backdrop driver.  

 

Jumbo clonks Gordy with a lariat in here that Hansen would look at and say “DAMN!” Gordy does an exceptional job after that of ‘hanging in there’. It’s great selling. Such a shame what happened to him. The finish is HECTIC. With lots going on. Both partners making saves to prevent big powerbombs. Gordy survives a roll up and hits the powerbomb but JUMBO SAVES. BACKDROP DRIVER!!!  

 

THIS IS GOOD SHIT, PEEPS. Doc prevents the hot tag and the save while Taue eats another powerbomb and MVC win it. Fucking hell this got HEATED down the stretch. Proper outstanding stuff. I am tempted to go four flakes just for that but what precedes it isn’t quite on that level. The finish is SO good though. ***¾ 

 

Despite the freakshow attraction of Land of Giants vs Andre & Baba, this show was great. I think because the end of it is so strong. So, you get the freakshow, the solid midcard match, then finish with a banger. It escalated beautifully. Fair play to the company having probably their worst match of the year on a show and it still be good. 

 

December 15, 1990 

 

Taped: December 1, 1990.  

 

We’re in Sapporo, Hokkaido, Japan. The north. 6,100 in attendance. We have an odd situation here as Giant Baba was hurt and missed the show. He broke his foot during a match with the Funks the previous night. The trouble is, AJPW has Andre for the tour. He’s a billed star attraction so they need to find something new for him. He would wind up the tour doing trios matches. First off, tonight, with a serious one teaming with the Funks. The rest of the tour he’s working with guys like Mitsuo Momota and Haruka Eigen.  

 

 

We start off with some clips from tag league matches that haven’t been on TV yet. Dynamite Kid taking out Butch Masters with the diving headbutt might look pretty cool, but DK looks fucked afterwards.  

 

Jumbo Tsuruta & Akira Taue vs. Kenta Kobashi & Johnny Ace 

Kenta gets the advantage on Jumbo and hits him with the moonsault and, for a brief moment, it seems as if Kobashi is going to beat the companies ace. It needs Taue to save him. Taue kicks out of an early Ace Crusher, just to prove what a geek Ace is. Kobashi totally plays big brother here. Saving Ace whenever possible until he gets distracted by Taue on the floor and Jumbo finishes with a backdrop driver. This was heavily clipped. 

 

Mitsuharu Misawa & Toshiaki Kawada vs. Miracle Violence Connection 

The opening bits with Kawada vs Doc are cool because they feel like two guys figuring each other out. There’s not enough of that in wrestling nowadays. People just go right into SEQUENCES. Sometimes it can be overdone and too tentative but when you get it right it builds the blocks for what follows. 

 

Misawa doesn’t always have a good understanding with foreign opponents. However, his work with Gordy here seems top notch. There’s a lot of promise here as there seems to be good chemistry now. MVC have gotten better as the year has passed. MVC take over on Kawada with nefarious, evil gaijin double teaming. Misawa had a bum knee during this tour, and he does some nice little sells on it. I like that he does it when Doc isn’t looking. It’s designed to tell the crowd he’s hurt but not his opponent. 

 

The stretch is HAWT. Misawa attemps a plancha on Doc but gets caught and thrown into the ring post. Meanwhile, in the ring, Kawada is hitting the powerbomb on Gordy and Doc jumps in to make the save. Right after working the Misawa spot. Just great stuff. I’m not keen on the actual finish. Instead of double teaming Kawada, Gordy catches a roundhouse and just pushes Kawada over for the pin. Damn. If they’d finished hotter, this could have gotten serious love. It’s still pretty great. ***½ 

 

MVC having so many bangers has meant their music has played a lot. It’s “I Love it Loud” by KISS. A toe-tapping anthemic rock song from a band on the decline in the 80s. They still knew how to belt out a tune. I always think KISS get underrated by people because of the look. They see the look and don’t listen to the music. I’ve always loved the band and thought their 80s stuff was pretty good. I used to have a copy of Destroyer on tape as a kid, and I played that thing to death. Detroit Rock City!  

 

Andre the Giant & The Funks vs. Stan Hansen, Danny Spivey & Joel Deaton 

The first pairing in this is Hansen and Terry and it makes me want a feud between the two immediately. Hansen is one of the few stars in this company big enough to go after Andre, but he can’t get anywhere. Andre ends up man handling all three of Stan’s stable. They have to isolate Dory for abuse. There’s a lot of brawling. Hansen is downright dangerous outside the ring. He cannot see and he’s throwing chairs around!  

 

Terry gets a hot tag, but they pick him off too with more nefarious cheating. Andre gets a tag and headbutts Deaton for the pin. Andre looked very limited here, but the other lads had a laugh working around it all. Enjoyable!  

 

December 22, 1990 

 

Taped: December 7, 1990, at the Budokan Hall.  

 

This is it, the finale for AJPW in 1990. The finals of the Real World Tag League and the final match in 1990’s feud of the year; Misawa and Tsuruta. We’re going out strong.  

 

Mitsuharu Misawa & Toshiaki Kawada vs. Jumbo Tsuruta & Akira Taue 

What a year this has been for Misawa. He’s almost unrecognisable as a worker, compared to previous years. Kawada has also had a fantastic year. However, both of them pale in comparison to Jumbo. This might be the best year of Tsuruta’s career for in-ring. He’s so intense and impactful. Quick and menacing. Taue looks very slow by comparison, but this has also been a big break out year for him. And Kobashi, who’s missing from this action.  

 

Misawa is still using the odd Tiger Mask spot. Like rolling over the ropes before an elbow strike dive to the floor. He would eventually upgrade this to the elbow suicida. The elbow strike is sold massively here, with Jumbo getting medical attention and struggling back to the apron. When he does get back into the ring Kawada knees him into oblivion with relative ease. Sometimes, it makes good logical sense for a move to change a match. Just one spot changes everything. Otherwise, why even bother with spots?  

 

There’s a nice spot where Kawada tries to kick off the ropes to stop a backdrop driver from Taue, only to change the angle and make his impact worse. Hot tag to Jumbo and BOY, IS HE HOT. He’s still selling the elbow impact and with his second move he nearly beheads Misawa with a lariat. OUCH. The people are so fired up by Jumbo’s comeback they start booing the Super Generation Army.  

 

I love Jumbo’s elbow receipt. Just clonking Misawa above the right eye. Everyone starts trying to get on Jumbo’s level and TAUE HITS A TOPE! Taue is quite a clumsy worker and has less control over his body than the others, but he makes up for it with sheer balls. Misawa runs across the ring to try and deck Jumbo off the apron, in a repeat of the famous spot, and Jumbo sees him coming and batters him with an elbow. Fantastic storytelling all round there. 

 

Misawa and Tsuruta both do an incredible job of piling into the ring to try and influence the outcome but ultimately Kawada is better than Taue and beats him with the powerbomb. This was fire! ****. The energy and exuberance at the conclusion was especially great. What a fantastic match for AJPW to finish the year on. A mini-story, telling the whole arc of what’s happened so far between Tsuruta and Misawa.  

 

Real World Tag League Final 

Stan Hansen & Danny Spivey vs. Miracle Violence Connection 

It’s an all gaijin final. The pacing on this feels off after the last match. It’s hard to follow that. It does not help that Spivey is involved. They opt to have everyone slapping meat and just leathering each other all match. A war of attrition. Spivey lays it in, thus allowing a solid performance. He still has issues but at least his offence looks ok. All four guys seem prepared to run into the rail full tilt or get dropped with big bombs. 

 

Spivey and Gordy seem inclined to beat the shit out of each other. I don’t think I’ve ever seen Spivey hit harder. He still can’t bump though. His bumping drags the match right down.  

Hansen calls for the lariat. The time is running out! Doc ducks the lariat and hits a powerslam. 1-2-….the bell rings. The time expired. The ref counts three anyway and the finish time is 29:59. With one second left! Take Spivey out of this match and it’s an honest to god great match. As it stands his bumping just dragged everything down. Great moment for Doc here though. He’s now a top guy. ***½ 

 

The 411: 

A good month to end on with All Japan clearly on fire in 1990 and set up for a strong 1991. Their TV has been insatiable. I am excited to see how 1991 plays out. The continued rise of Misawa with Tsuruta his main foil.