AJPW TV October 1990 review 

 

October 14, 1990 

 

We’re at Korakuen Hall for this week’s show. Taped on October 7, 1990.  

 

Stan Hansen & Danny Spivey vs. Dynamite Kid & Johnny Smith 

There’s no escaping Dan Spivey. I’ve just sat through matches he had in UWF and now I’ve got him again. Dynamite Kid gets a HUGE pop here. It’s doubly tragic that when he was at his most over, he was at his least mobile. They’ve tried to gimmick Johnny up, so he looks a lot more like Davey Boy and boy, does it not work. You can’t polish a turd. Hansen tries to coach Spivey here but he’s not giving him good advice. “All the way across Dan” before a kick to the midsection isn’t helping. Of course, it’s Hansen, you’re going to listen to him.  

 

Spivey’s main issues come from not looking impactful. Running across the ring won’t help when the strike is so tame. Dynamite tries to roll back the clock constantly here and his diving headbutt makes me upset. I shouldn’t be mentally damaged by a guy hitting a move because I’m worried about his health. Spivey then DDTs Smith to win anyway, so it was all for nothing. I didn’t like this match. Watching Dynamite Kid in 1990 and knowing he’s going to end up in a wheelchair hurts.  

 

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

Kenta and his sidechick continue the rivalry with Tsuruta-gun. Johnny Ace thinks he’s better than Taue, which is fascinating to watch with the benefit of hindsight. Kenta, on the other hand, is NOT fucking around. He jacks Taue up for a deadweight powerbomb and I’m like HOLY SHIT this dude is strong. There are some legendary intentional sandbagging incidents to come, I believe this one was accidental.  

 

Taue seems off the match by a beat, which explains that spot and he seems to fumble any complicated bumps. Sometimes, you get in your own head and once you’re in there, THERE’S NO ESCAPE. Kenta, BADASS, gives up on a half crab because he’d rather twat Jumbo with a lariat than win that way. How many free shots do you get at the big man? Ace looks fired up here too. He goes in hard on Jumbo and he’s not playing. Oh, good god, did Johnny Ace get good by osmosis from Kenta?  

 

Is every tag putting a little bit of Kobashi’s genetics into Ace’s flesh? He still lacks Kobashi’s aggressive and impactful strikes. When they both do a corner splash in succession Kenta goes at twice the speed. It is much better from Ace though. Jumbo eventually kills him off with the backdrop driver but credit to Johnny, this is easily his best performance for AJPW so far. ***¼ 

 

Video Control gives us a look at the new AJPW tour bus. They’ve brought Abby in to test it, and he tells the poor reporter that it’s too small and he’s taking up two seats. “TWO SEATS!” There’s a great bit where Abby is yelling at the reporter in Japanese and the reporter is apologising in English.  

 

Miracle Violence Connection vs. Mitsuharu Misawa & Toshiaki Kawada 

This is a big test of where Misawa and Kawada are. There’s no weak link anywhere here. Kawada’s is the low man on the company’s tree but that’s a hell of a low man. The idea is that the natives struggle to compete with the powerhouse gaijin team and need to up their game to get close to victory. Gordy, in particular, feels like a mountain that a normal man cannot climb. Which is why the Triple Crown currently sits in Stan Hansen’s lounge. There are levels to this promotion and the Pillars remain second class citizens, despite doing most of the legwork. 

 

Kawada takes the brunt of this abuse and eats a powerbomb on the floor. The abuse continues and Doc has improved so much in the past two years. The match leans heavily on Kawada’s selling as he spends most of the match in isolation. His hot tag is a great spot as he clocks Doc with a lariat and then throws himself into the corner, using his last bit of energy. Misawa goes and gets near falls on both guys, and we get Kawada back in. Not sure I get the logic of that but it does show the difference between the two. Kawada does get a big near fall with a powerbomb on Gordy though.  

 

Both Misawa and Kawada are over here. They’re getting great reactions for stepping up to the plate. However, all of the abuse Kawada suffered leaves him prone for Gordy’s powerbomb. That’s the finish. Misawa being half a second late on the save is a nice touch. ***. I would have preferred they didn’t run so much heat as it made half the match feel sluggish, but it finished strong.  

 

October 20, 1990 

 

Taped in Aichi on October 10, 1990. Only two matches here. One a meaningless all gaijin affair but the other sees Super Generation Army take on Tsuruta-gun and you know how good that shit has been getting.  

 

Stan Hansen & Danny Spivey vs. Abdullah the Butcher & Giant Kimala II 

I’m getting a little sick of Dan Spivey, let me tell you. I’ve seen him wrestle for three promotions this year and he’s been bad in all of them. He’ll be hanging around AJPW until 1994 too. This is clubberin’ heavy and there’s a lot of talking. Kimala, clearly thinking they’ve “done enough” goes to the dreaded NERVE HOLD. How did this make it onto tape unclipped?  

 

At least Hansen is in there delivering big blows but holy fuck, does it suck when he’s not involved. Kimala gets bludgeoned to the point where he’s bleeding. Abby pulls out the fork to attack Hansen and that’ll be a DQ. This was a long way to go for a DQ finish. 11:35 to be precise. They weren’t even heating Abby up for a Triple Crown shot or something. A bizarrely shit throwback. 

 

Super Generation Army (Mitsuharu Misawa, Toshiaki Kawada & Kenta Kobashi) vs. Tsuruta-gun (Jumbo Tsuruta, Akira Taue & Mighty Inoue) 

The battle continues! Misawa vs. Tsuruta is already a hot feud but they’ve not even come close to concluding it yet. We’re still two years away from the TC switch match. While all of the SGA are on the rise, Jumbo is still bullying them when he’s toe to toe with any of them. Taue is also becoming stronger in the ring. From either a workrate perspective or from an aura perspective. He’s developing “it”. That leaves Inoue as the goofy third who takes heat and will, inevitably, take the pin. 

 

This one takes a while to get going and it’s Kawada who sets it off. He drags Taue outside and slams him on the floor, before delivering some stiff kicks for good measure. Taue started tagging with Kawada because he was sick of taking the stiff little fuckers strikes. That’s my theory anyway. In isolating and hurting Taue, SGA weaken one of the bigest weapons of Tsuruta-gun. If Jumbo is left with only one option to tag in; Inoue, then he’s fucked. 

 

Taue does show good fire in trying to fend off SGA and in particular trading elbows with Misawa. Tsuruta-gun turn it around and put a beating on Kobashi. I’m a little sad that Taue just shrugs off the effects of his beating to be involved in this section. Kawada fucks him up again though with kicks and slaps. It’s a real, genuine, shit-kicking for poor Akira. Misawa absolutely clocks him with the diving elbow smash. Misawa’s ability to be airbourne and smack someone is awesome. I love it.  

 

Kobashi, equally, takes a second shoeing. Jumbo is instrumental in this, and Misawa is the protector, trying to prevent the prolonged abuse. The leaders in this are clear. Kenta tries to pick off Inoue with the moonsault but Inoue hasn’t taken any abuse at all in this and simply rolls out of the way. I like how this plays into Kobashi’s issues during the match and Inoue’s relative freshness. It’s not just a spot for the sake of it. It makes sense. 

 

Kobashi proceeds to rough Inoue up for a minute and then beats him with a second moonsault. It helped to show Kenta’s resilience, determination and the elevation of him up the card. He wasn’t going to get pinned by Mighty Inoue. Not today, sirs! This got real good every now and again but the overall structure of it was the best part. From start to finish it made sense and the right guy won. ***½. It did lack the wow factor of many AJPW matches this year though.  

 

October 28, 1990 

 

Taped at Korakuen Hall on October 19, 1990.  

 

Terry & Dory Funk vs. Joe & Dean Malenko 

Terry Funk is BACK! This is his first time back in Japan in three years and people adore him. Deano countering the Funk Spinning Toehold is good stuff. Dean was a technical master so it’s ok that he knows how to escape your finisher. Dory backslides him for the pin. This was very, very clipped and only existed to show that Terry Funk was back, baby.  

 

Miracle Violence Connection vs. Dan Spivey & Doug Furnas 

Kroffat is injured so Furnas has been chucked in with Spivey. That’s not a good switch. Dan Kroffat won’t be back until March. Yikes. That’s a tough pill to swallow and means Can-Ams have no real shot at tag team of the year now. Furnas isn’t 100% and his German suplex is the flattest bridge you’ll ever see. MVC spike powerbomb Spivey and Doc dismissively kills Furnas with a lariat for the win. Wow, we’re flying through this show.  

 

Super Generation Army (Mitsuharu Misawa, Toshiaki Kawada & Kenta Kobashi) vs. Tsuruta-gun (Jumbo Tsuruta, Akira Taue & Masa Fuchi) 

The battle continues! The crowd is molten before anyone has touched and we’re only just getting started here. Kawada, surly motherfucker that he is, looks mad at having to be in the match and works casually but also very, very stiff. It backfires on him because he goes to slam Taue out in the crowd (like he did in Aichi) and it gets reversed. Not happy with how that panned out Kawada recovers and suplexes Taue out in the crowd. He is a little bastard, isn’t he?  

 

SGA pick off Taue after this, which feels like revenge for Taue’s departure and joining Tsuruta-gun. Tsuruta-gun pick off Kobashi and, in a display of fucking viciousness, target his NOSE. Jumbo flat out punches him in the nose and draws blood. This is a proper ‘know your place’ beating for Kenta. You belong at the bottom of this tree, bitch. Kenta gets hugely over by refusing to stay down.  

 

The match feels focused on Kobashi’s struggle, Misasa trying to outsmart Tsuruta AND the Taue vs Kawada mini-feud with them one-upping each other. All three of those strands feel vital to the structure of the match. The match intensifies as we progress, which is how it should be. Things should escalate, in my opinion. We escalate here by having Misawa go after Jumbo and Taue stop it by hitting Misawa with a dive!  

 

Misawa is caught again as he goes to save Kobashi from Jumbo and Tsuruta clonks him with a big elbow to stop it. Kobashi does a great job of fighting from underneath, busted nose and all. It’s Fuchi who prevents the moonsault and Jumbo takes advantage with a backdrop driver for the pin. This was very good pro-wrestling, and it got better as the match progressed. I’ve seen this before and it doesn’t connect with me like the August 1990 trios match did when Taue had just jumped. **** 

 

It’s interesting to me they put this barnburner on the same night that Tenryu’s SWS put on their first major show. It was like they wanted to show what they had here, in All Japan, was better.  This is seen by many as a MOTYC and Meltzer went full boat on it, but I think it’s not quite on the level of August or May at Korakuen Hall. Very similar line ups in all those matches. 

 

The 411: 

Terry Funk is back. The SGA-TG feud is getting red hot. The only downside is that Dan Kroffat got injured. All Japan TV has become the backbone of this flashback series and with good cause. Great pro-wrestling on almost every single show.