AJPW TV May 1990 review 

 

May 6, 1990 

 

The April shows weren’t available on Roy Lucier’s YouTube, in case you’re wondering why that never happened but also, they consisted entirely of highlights of the Wrestling Summit show, which I reviewed anyway.  

 

Can-Am Express vs. Tiger Mask II & Kenta Kobashi 

Misawa is so close to being unmasked here, I can taste it. When you watch his Tiger Mask II run, he gives no indication he’s about to become one of the best in-ring talents on the planet. He’s barely interested in this match, which should make sense as he doesn’t seem to enjoy working foreigners. Instead, Kobashi takes the bulk of the match eating delicious Canadian-American heat.  

 

This is on the undercard to the Tsuruta-Tenryu match so Misawa must be aware Tenryu is leaving at this point. The “Tiger Mask” character has stopped giving a shit. Given the talent involved here, the match is disappointing. The Can-Ams could probably make the match great without Misawa’s involvement, but they seem a step off their usual form.  

 

It could be due to the Can-Ams not being here for four months. Doug Furnas had an offer from the NWA and would appear on Capital Combat for an interview before wrestling on Clash #11. After 20 minutes of Kenta eating heat, Misawa gets the hot tag and finishes with the Tiger Driver. This was underwhelming, sadly. **½ 

 

AJPW World Tag Team Championship 

Miracle Violence Connection (c) vs. Stan Hansen & Danny Spivey 

MVC took the belts off Hansen & Tenryu, causing an enraged Hansen to end his partnership with Tenryu. His replacement is Dan Spivey, just departed from an NWA run in the Skyscrapers. Spivey was better suited to Japan because he could get away with being the big dude who doesn’t sell much. Alongside Sid? Less so. Someone has to take bumps in that team and it ain’t Sid, is it?  

 

Doc and Gordy don’t start fast here, which shows a level of appreciation for their opponents. The tag champs have run roughshod over AJPW and it’s clear that won’t happen here as Spivey tattoos Doc with a big ol’ lariat. Doc’s response is to press, multiple lifts in there, slam Spivey. Steve Williams was a BEAST. Spivey is 6’ 8”, 280lbs. That is freakish power.  

Hansen was bloodied wrestling Hulk Hogan the week before this, and he gets opened up again. It’s interesting how Hansen goes toe to toe and scraps with the bigger Gordy but let’s Doc get over on him. The match gets lost in the middle with Hansen just allowing himself to be beaten. It’s not what you’d expect from him in this era, where he was largely indestructible.  

 

It’s just so odd seeing Hansen as vulnerable in any way and the crowd respond by chanting his name. I guess the aim is to get MVC over more as they’re now the key cog in the tag division. They make a mess of the stretch too. Doc going to save Gordy when he’s not in need of one. Then he hits the Oklahoma Stampede but he’s not legal. Higuchi counts the pin anyway but then doesn’t for Spivey, despite it being the same two guys.  

 

If you can overlook these fumbles, they clonk each other pretty good. The Gordy powerbomb is awesome because it’s so untidy. Spivey misses off the ropes and Doc just rolls him up. While he’s celebrating Hansen takes his head off with a lariat! Brilliant. *** 

 

The match has some issues, which would be solved by clipping out the middle and basically ignoring the poor refereeing. The post-match fight is tremendous and should have led to them trading the belts, but it wasn’t to be, and that particular title switch wouldn’t happen for almost a year.  

 

May 13, 1990 

 

This whole show was taped in Osaka back on April 16.  

 

Andre the Giant, Giant Baba & Great Kabuki vs. Masanobu Fuchi, Shinichi Nakano & Shunji Takano  

I don’t like Team Fuchi’s chances here! Andre is making his debut on tour, after tagging with Baba at the Wrestling Summit. His WWF career is effectively over so now he’s making some coin in the Land of the Rising Sun. Takano is 6’ 7” and the only tall boy that AJPW have. He’s about to jump to SWS. Nakano will jump soon after, whereas Fuchi is an AJPW LIFER. He’s been with AJPW since 1974 and has wrestled in their ring THIS YEAR (2024, if you’re reading this at a later date). Apart from excursion, he’s wrestled every single year too.  

 

Andre gets a huge pop when he tags in. It’s lovely to see. The Japanese lads are generous and just bounce off Andre but even so, Andre looks more motivated and mobile than he has in years. He gets a cracking pop for his tag out to Kabuki, because it’s so loud. It sounded like one of WALTER’s chops.  

Takano tries to chop him, and Andre just murders him with a single chop. Andre only leaves his feet once in the entire match, dropping an elbow for the win. I don’t care. I’m just happy for the big man. He’s not got long left.  

 

It’s weird that Tenryu’s match went on after this, but he’s just been removed from existence. The split seems to be acrimonious.  

 

Miracle Violence Connection vs. Can-Am Express 

This is an interesting matchup as the powerhouse MVC battle the more technically gifted Can-Ams. It has more urgency than anything else on this block of TV. It has clever spots too with the tag team environment preventing big singles moves from happening. Doc is clearly in “the mood”. He hits hard, he takes no prisoners and he’s in there like a whippet whenever possible.  

 

Gordy, meanwhile, works more like Hansen here. Using his size to intimidate. Gordy felt like Hansen’s successor in many ways. Kroffat’s hot tag in this is brilliant. He’s so fiery with his strikes and suplexes. Then we get Furnas again with the ace dropkicks. His flash pin attempt on Gordy gets a great reaction as it starts to get hot in here down the stretch. Another powerbomb finishes Furnas off and that failed hot tag betrayed the Can-Ams. Really good match though. ***½ 

 

Jumbo Tsuruta & Kenta Kobashi vs. Stan Hansen & Danny Spivey 

Kobashi tries his best to fight Hansen here and he lasts longer than his singles match earlier in the year. Hansen and Jumbo have continued beef over who the top guy is. Hansen has dismissed Tenryu as his Padawan and is wanting the Triple Crown. Interesting to note the crowd yelling “Spivey” every time Dan lands a shot, which might explain the reactions to DiBiase-Warrior at Wrestling Summit.  

It could be anything though because we’re in Osaka and they’re fucking weird here. If your city is full of oddballs and weirdos, you’re living in the Osaka of your country. As with almost every Kobashi tag, he’s in there taking a shellacking. Jumbo just stands around watching for 90% of the match.  

 

Jumbo’s hot tag leads to him kicking all kinds of ass. He’s got Spivey in a Boston crab and Stan comes in to break it up and Jumbo just breaks it himself and twats Hansen. With Jumbo having turned the tide he gives Kenta the chance to win. He has Spivey beaten with the moonsault only for Hansen to save. As soon as Kobashi goes after Hansen, the match is as good as done. Western Lariat finishes. *** 

 

May 20, 1990 

 

We skip forward and this show was taped on May 14 at the Tokyo Metropolitan Gym. This is a famous show because it’s the end of Tiger Mask II. This is the first day of the new tour, with the last tour ending with Misawa’s somewhat reluctant performance against the Can-Ams. They’ve had almost a month to decide what direction the promotion is going in with Genichiro Tenryu gone. This show is the first domino.  

 

Yoshiaki Yatsu & Samson Fuyuki vs. Tiger Mask II & Toshiaki Kawada 

Yatsu has been out for a while with broken ribs. Yatsu will be a prominent figure in the creation of Tsuruta-gun, the Jumbo stable that’s about to butt heads with Misawa and his mates; the Super Generation Army. Fuyuki and Kawada used to tag together as Footloose but I sense AJPW know Fuyuki is leaving, so they’re now on opposing teams. The Misawa-Kawada storyline, which starts around here, is an EPIC.  

In the middle of the match Tiger Mask is all “get this fucking thing off me” and Kawada obliges. Tiger Mask II (1984-1990) we hardly knew ye. Misawa hurls the mask into the crowd, just to demonstrate how permanent this transformation is. Keep in mind, this is the middle of a match, and Misawa bails to wail on Yatsu outside the ring as the crowd chant “MI-SA-WA”.  

And here he is. Unmasked for the first time in six years. About to get The Push. There is such a buzz about the crowd. It’s amazing what a little change can do. He immediately looks tougher. Samson Fuyuki gets his ass handed to him by the newly unmasked Misawa and the German suplex finishes. This isn’t a good match but it’s an iconic one. The reaction to Misawa unmasking and the change in status for him IMMEDIATELY is worth seeing.  

 

Davey Boy Smith vs Dusty Rhodes Jr 

Dusty Jr is Dustin aka Goldust on an early Japanese tour. I noticed he was on a tour in 1989 but never saw any matches. He’s young, dumb and full of rest holds. He might be a worse worker than his dad, which is saying something. He hits a DOGSHIT elbow off the ropes and the crowd let him know they don’t approve of it. He goes up again and they start booing when he’s climbing the ropes. Wow. Davey thankfully finishes with a superplex. It’s hard to imagine Dustin having a career after this. The only spots he did with any competence were rest holds so simple I could have done them. DUD 

 

As part of the New Japan crossover, Tatsumi Fujinami is in the crowd. Knowing how heated these crossover matches get, I’m begging them to do Fujinami vs. Tsuruta.  

 

Miracle Violence Connection vs. Giant Baba & Jumbo Tsuruta 

Oh geez, who takes the pin here? Jumbo has taken a few shots at MVC and come up short. Most notably with Yatsu. So, he’s teaming with Baba in a one-off. The last time they straight up tagged, not in trios, was 1986. Baba, as always, gets big reactions but is not very mobile. He’s what you would call a “special attraction”. He can draw a house but once you’ve seen the big freak, you wouldn’t want to watch him wrestle again.  

 

Jumbo finds himself exploited by MVC because Baba is a walking corpse who can’t really break anything up. At one point he does prevent a Boston crab by staring at Gordy. I assume Terry thought he was a zombie or something and just stops. Jumbo vs. Gordy is pretty great. It’s two big boys barrelling into each other. You can see why they booked a title match.  

 

Baba though. He’s just so pointless here. He takes a suplex and just lies there like he’s expecting Gordy to do something else to him. He literally has to be dragged off the mat. You can hide him away in trios or have a 100% freakshow match with Andre but he is a detriment to this. Or perhaps MVC are. Maybe they didn’t want to hurt the boss and ruin their payday. Baba matches are much better when people just lay into him.  

 

Gordy has a bash down the stretch. He flattens Baba in the corner and powerbombs him for two. Gordy clocks him with a big lariat and IT’S OVER! Gordy pins Baba. Holy shit. So much for Jumbo going and getting a better partner. Baba got fucked up. The last couple of minutes here are fantastic and heated. The rest of the match just plods along. Baba is clearly upset afterwards, and I get the feeling he was supposed to kick out and protests the cadence of the count. Should have kicked out, you old mummy.  

 

The crowd still erupts when he stands. Possibly because they still, after all these years, can’t believe a man has his nipples halfway down his torso. Remarkable. 

 

May 27, 1990 

 

This show was taped in Hiroshima on May 17. We get the top four matches here including the main event…a 19 man battle royal.  

 

AJPW All Asia Tag Team Championship 

Mitsuharu Misawa & Kenta Kobashi (c) vs. Davey Boy Smith & Johnny Smith 

This is the first sighting of Ted Betley’s nephew Johnny. He’s a kind soul and famously wore a ring jacket made for him by a fan, even though his name “Jhonny” was spelled wrong on it. In kayfabe terms he’s Davey’s brother but that just means he’s also from England. He’s been over in Calgary for four years at this point and this begins his All Japan career, which would run in the 2000s. Johnny is a perfect 6/10 wrestler. He’s not shit but you wouldn’t pay to see him.  

This is confusing piece of booking as the champions vacate the belts after the match but there’s no sense of a tag switch and indeed Davey was heading to the WWF and won’t be on the next tour. He looks effortlessly good here, which makes his awful upcoming WWF run feel like a bigger crime. Two years of honking matches until Bret Hart carried him at Summerslam ‘92.  

 

Davey isn’t in the mood to sell though and his selling for Misawa is shocking. Misawa is just starting to adjust to life without the hood and he doesn’t need this shit. So, we’re left with 6/10 Jhonny Smith having to carry the match and eat the pin. He does fine. Everyone is fine. Let’s move on.  

 

Miracle Violence Connection vs. Abdullah the Butcher & Ranger Ross 

Ranger Ross? What the fuck? I was sure he was toast after his WCW run came to an end but here he is, on tour with AJPW. Mostly tagging with Abby, presumably because he needed a partner to take bumps and job and stuff. Baba joins commentary to justify bringing Ranger Ross in. My Japanese is rusty, but it sounds like he’s clutching at straws. Ross’ army kung-fu goes over about as well here as it did in the USA to be fair.  

Ross quickly fucks up and Doc is NOT happy about it. If he was Japanese, he would be about to get an ass whuppin’. Ross, despite looking like a massive goofball, does get over with the crowd. I think they’re just impressed he can jump over the ropes but that’s the read I’m getting.  

 

Doc has now completed his transformation from ‘meh’ midcard guy in the NWA to genuine star. His mannerisms, aura and movement around the ring single him out as a star. Gordy too has the It Factor and it’s going to be hard to write about what happens to him in the coming years.  

 

Ross takes the bulk of the match as Abby adopts the approach of ‘why have a dog and bark yourself’ by remaining on the apron. Not that I’m crying out for an Abby tag you understand. By giving Ross the bumps themselves MVC actually get a decent match out of the Ranger. Probably the best of his career. As I type that he fucks up again and quickly tag out to Abby to avoid an ass kicking. 

 

Doc slams Abby LIKE HE’S NOTHING. How strong was this guy? They do an awesome job with Gordy tripping over the rope on a failed save and Doc kicks out anyway. Was it designed that way or is Gordy just clumsy? Ross makes the mistake of tagging back in and Doc beats him with Oklahoma Stampede. This was exactly as you would expect this match to go, bar the massive slam on Abby from Williams, the freakshow.  

 

Jumbo Tsuruta & Great Kabuki vs. Toshiaki Kawada & Akira Taue 

This pre-dates the Holy Demon Army by about three years. It’s also just before Tsuruta-gun, where Taue will switch sides. It’s also before Kabuki jumps to SWS. There’s only a small window for this match to happen in. Kawada is hoping to jump into the Tenryu spot, having been his lieutenant in Revolution. It doesn’t always work like that, chief. 

 

This is the first time Taue has looked like any kind of a threat to the upper card. Jumbo is beating on him in the corner and he does the palm strikes to drive him across the ring. Jumbo beats him up and pins him with the Backdrop Hold but for a minute there, Akira Taue had arrived. This worked, especially with Kawada cheering him on. **¾ 

 

19 Man Battle Royal 

Everyone who wrestled on the show is in this thing including Baba and Abby, who must be early favourites. We also have all the undercard guys like Momota and Eigen. Then Tiger Jeet Singh, Davey Boy etc. It’s the whole card. Ranger Ross keeps on with the army ranger kung-fu while everyone else stands around doing nothing. You can get eliminated via pinfall so there are inevitable pile on’s.  

 

FINAL FOUR: Dustin Rhodes, Kenta Kobashi, Toshiaki Kawada and Davey Boy Smith. Pile on gets rid of Dustin, missile dropkick puts Kobashi out and Davey rolls up Kawada to win. AWFUL match. Get me the fuck out of here.