The Big God Damn 1989 Mop Up Column 

 

In which I review all the matches that didn’t make it into the big shows I watched. Settle in readers, there’s a lot to get through. Back in the 1987 mop up, I watched 9 matches. In the 1988 mop up,I ended up watching 12 matches. Want to know how many matches are on my shortlist for 1989?   

 

 

FIFTY-FIVE. Fifty, bloody, five. Why are there so many matches now? Oh no, what have I done?  

 

Match #1 (January 10, UWF Dynamism, Nippon Budokan, Tokyo, Japan) 

 

Akira Maeda vs. Nobuhiko Takada  

These two are the foremost shoot-style workers alive today (if today was still 1989) and co-captains of the UWF project. This is the third singles match they had in UWF. The first one was a bridging match between normal work and shootstyle and was ***¼. The second one was the introduction of the UWF’s dynamic new rules and a stone-cold banger at ****½. One of the best matches of 1988. So, naturally, people are fucking hyped for this one.  

 

They make this look real, which is the aim of the promotion, but they miss out a couple of times in key areas. The most obvious is Takada catching Maeda across the cheek with a kick, which Maeda completely misread. He’s a little startled but forgets to sell it. Takada goes to rush in, and Maeda shows he’s fine and it just stops. Huh. Maybe I’m doing them a disservice and it was intentional.  

 

They do a lot of tentative stuff and grapplefucking. It’s nowhere near as dynamic and exciting as the MOTYC they had back in November. Most of the mat work is designed around Maeda trying to get a submission on the arm. The crowd fully buys into each submission attempt as the end of the match, which counts for a lot. Maeda races into a lead, forcing Takada into the ropes twice and knocking him down with a head kick.  

 

It feels like Maeda is bossing the match. That Takada’s only escape in the early going is to get into the ropes to save himself. Either I can’t count rope breaks, or I don’t understand the rules because I’m pretty sure Takada is on four rope breaks and the caption reads two. It also seems to be getting rope breaks and downs confused. The result is making it hard to follow.  

 

Takada does force his way back into the match through his kicking, but his mat work seems aimless, and Maeda routinely takes him to school on the deck. There’s a real sense that Takada came into this match unprepared and is coasting on his victory beforehand. The finish is oddly flat with Maeda getting the Boston crab and sitting down on it for the submission. I didn’t really enjoy this. It felt cold and flat, although the crowd felt into it, they never raised the heat with the work. ***½. I much prefer their second match from November 1988.  

 

Match #2 (January 23, 1989. WWF in MSG, Madison Square Garden, New York) 

 

Brainbusters vs. Rockers  

These two launched into an immediate feud on the Busters arrival in the WWF. They had nine matches of note including two on SNME (#20 and #24). This one, from MSG, has the best reputation of all of them. I’ve never seen it before. The Rockers have a nice time running a reverse version of heat on Tully. They literally do all the heel stuff (blind switches, cutting the ring off) but get cheered for doing it. A proper perversion of pro-wrestling. Earl Hebner even disallows a legitimate tag to Arn because he tags Tully’s foot. 

 

The timing on all this is exquisite. Jannetty survives a double team and he’s not even in position when Blanchard comes off the top but gets in position when Tully is in the air. The level of trust they’ve quickly developed is so exciting to watch. Shawn dodges an elbow drop where Blanchard, again, was already on his way down before he moved. This is great by today’s standards, let alone 1989.  

 

Another great spot is Tully going for the slingshot suplex, Shawn sliding out of it, into a roll up, Arn comes in for the cheap shot and Michaels comes off the pin to deck him. This is all one fluid movement. It’s so good. Shawn gets knocked cross-eyed and isolated for heat. Alfred Hayes claims he’s “unconscious” and being unconscious against Arn Anderson is bad news. Being unconscious in a match is generally bad news, mate. Shawn’s sunset flip comeback is cut off by Arn tagging Tully in mid-air.  

 

When we talk about good tag team continuity, I much prefer clever tags to silly double teams. The way the Busters tag in and out, and take shortcuts, should be put in the fucking Louvre. Blanchard comes in, double teams and then goes out of the ring on ref’s blind side so he sees nothing. The thought process that goes into every little thing is just perfection. Busters win, via shortcuts, and this is the WWF Match of the Year. ****¼  

 

Match #3 (January 28, 1989. AJPW New Year Giant Series N17, Korakuen Hall, Tokyo, Japan) 

 

British Bulldogs vs. Malenko Brothers  

I’m going out on a limb and assuming you’re all familiar with Dean Malenko. You’ve probably seen him in WCW, you have probably seen his Eddie stuff in ECW and you’re probably aware of his work for New Japan when he was part of the rise of junior wrestling. Dean started out in Florida, thanks to his dad Boris. Both Malenkos are second generation. This is the start of a stretch of about four years where the Malenkos worked for All Japan. Joe, the lesser known and elder Malenko brother, would effectively retire around 1992, which is why his name is less well known.  

The Bulldogs are here off the back of leaving the WWF. Davey is looking BIG and Dynamite Kid is looking frail. Billington missed a lot of 1990 with injuries and Davey went back to the WWF. So, this is effectively the end of their run as a tag team, dating back to 1984. Tommy is MEGA over here. He’s earned that respect through matches with Tiger Mask, and he’s treated as a hero. In retrospect, it’s kinda mad they’re working with each other when there were so many young, hungry talents in AJPW at the time.  

 

I’m sure this will come up again, but Dean Malenko is a fucking GREAT pro-wrestler. If you’ve never seen him pre-neck injury the way he moves around the ring is elite. Dean was one of the first of a new generation of workers who kept quiet but did their talking in the ring. He does a monkey flip on Davey Boy here and Davey flips in mid flip and lands on his feet. Dean doesn’t oversell it. He just looks at him, letting the crowd react, as if he’s weighing up what just happened and what he’ll do differently next time.  

 

Davey generally struggles with Dean’s ideas. There’s a REVERSE rana in here and Davey just flip bumps and flatbacks it. Likewise, Joe is less startlingly good at wrestling than Dean. He does easier spots and lands stuff safe. You can tell who the stars are here. Davey does some impressive power moves, perhaps in training for his WWF return. It’s sad watching him try and keep up here and then watching the dogshit matches he had back in the Fed.  

 

Joe does a lot of competent limb work in this, which is fine, but I’ve seen Dean wrestle now and I’m begging for him to tag in. If the match was constantly at the highs it hits, we’d be looking at a god damn all-timer. As it is, the match loses a lot of steam in the middle. Just when I think the match is done, Davey goes to press slam DK onto Dean and Joe dropkicks them both out of the ring! Haha! Marvellous. Dynamite Kid, naturally, taking a sick bump off it. Billington bloodies his nose in the process and Joe thinks he can abuse DK with suplexes, which he does but Tommy counters him into a pin for the duke. ***¾. This was a belter for 10:00. Five at the start, five at the end. Sadly, the middle section was too sluggish to go higher. Great wrestling though. If this didn’t highlight Dean Malenko as “one to watch” nothing would.  

 

Match #4 (February 2, 1989. WWA International Bash, Kansas City, Kansas) 

 

British Bulldogs vs. Rock n’ Roll Express 

This is a 30:00 time limit draw and the only time two classic 80s tag teams ever met, on the neutral ground of WWA (Central States Wrestling out of Kansas). The WWA had existed since 1930, but the national expansion had crippled them. 1989 was the last year they were in business, and this is their last shot at staying around. The show was headlined by Hansen & Gordy vs. Tsuruta & Yatsu, for the AJPW tag belts. All Japan propped up this show with workers like Tenryu and Tiger Mask II.  

 

It aired in Japan and unfortunately remaining footage is both clipped and in terrible condition. 240p! Yeah! Ricky Morton is isolated for heat in a shocking turn of events. RnR are default babyfaces because you can’t boo them. Just to ensure this reaction Dynamite Kid is a complete dickhead. The referee here is a painfully slow Pat O’Connor. Has bringing an old wrestler back to be a referee ever worked in this decade? They just can’t keep up! The match slowy grinds to a draw with a double dropkick spot and an attempted pinfall reversal thing at the bell doesn’t quite come off. This isn’t the forgotten classic it could have been. Should have run it in Japan. The crowd boo the draw.  

 

Match #4* (February 23, 1989. AJPW Excite Series N1, Korakuen Hall, Tokyo, Japan) 

*So, hey, I’m proof reading this and just noticed I called two match #4’s in here. I’m not renumbering the entire column. You’ll just have to deal with it. – Arn  

 

AJPW World Tag Team Championship  

Jumbo Tsuruta & Yoshiaki Yatsu (c) vs. Genichiro Tenryu & Toshiaki Kawada  

One of AJPW’s biggest storylines was Tenryu vs. Tsuruta. They were tag team partners, who took on every major gaijin visitor to the territory. In 1987, Tenryu formed Revolution. A group of like-minded dudes who wanted to shake things up a bit. A young Kawada was the principle student of Tenryu’s idealogies. As soon as he did this, the Tsuruta-Tenryu landscape changed. They were no longer mates. They were rivals for the top spot in the company. Tenryu took on Tsuruta in singles and won by count out, then again on DQ. They traded various tag belts. Usually with this combination of guys. Tsuruta beat Tenryu in singles in late 1988 but there’s still been no pin or submission victory either way. This is all building to the formation of the Triple Crown, which is two months away now. I can barely contain my excitement.  

 

I’ve come to love Tenryu’s surly bullshit during this flashback run. I’ve never really vibed with it before but it’s landing now. I just had to see the context. As a character, he believes he’s earned to right to treat all Japanese wrestlers like shit and he sees them as beneath him. He’s also a great mentor to Kawada and won’t allow any bullshit from the others. Jumbo has a measure of him though and doesn’t give him a second. As soon as Tenryu tags in, he’s all over him. I can’t tell you how great this is, when compared to all other wrestling in 1989. It’s that good. The All Japan main event style came on fast and hard.  

 

Tenryu hits a chop in this, which Ric Flair should have studied. It’s that good. He only needs one, brother. Kawada, with his various kicks, actually feels a bit off the standard but that’s only because the standard is so high with everything else. Tenryu lays some more chops into Yatsu and they’re all elite but it pisses Yatsu off and he dropkicks Tenryu RIGHT IN THE GODDAMN FACE. Right in the kisser. This style of match is so much My Shit. It’s really stiff but it also gets character over and builds.  

 

There’s a spot in here where Tenryu threatens to come in and break up a hold. Jumbo is yelling at him not to. “If you come in here, you motherfucker, I will stomp your guts in. I will fuck you up, bitch”. So, here’s Tenryu all swagger and he pretends he’s going to leave but then turns around and breaks up Yatsu’s hold. Jumbo is in there like a shot. “I FUCKING WARNED YOU, YOU PUNKASS BITCH”.  

The character work in that 20 seconds of the match is better than anything I’ve seen anywhere else this year. The referee has to pull Jumbo off the attack. Tenryu then stands on the apron stewing, knowing he can’t pile back in there, but he’ll get Tsuruta back. The second Tsuruta comes in legally, he gets a tag and kicks him in the back of the head. I love how much they hate each other. Jumbo does a high knee, right in front of Tenryu, so Tenryu leans into the ring and punches him. Then he stomps his head in, drags him out of the ring and runs him into the guardrail. Oh, this is just so good. FEEL THE HATRED!  

 

On the floor Tenryu hits Tsuruta with a chair and we have blood! Not sure if it was hardway. The match gets so stiff around this point. It’s just two guys beating the piss out of each other. It might be the only time in history where Kawada tags in and the match gets visibly worse because of it. I NEED MORE TENRYU! As the match progresses I feel myself getting more and more lost in the moment. This is just spectacular pro-wrestling. The way it builds and builds and escalates and keeps getting more and more exciting is a lesson in structure.  

 

If I’m picking flaws here, there are some moments that feel less than others. Kawada is the main culprit, and he deserves to eat the pinfall, which he does to Jumbo’s backdrop driver. This was one of my favourite matches of the year. It absolutely cooks. It fucks. It bangs. It slaps. ****¾.  

 

Match #5 (February 27, 1989. UWF Fighting Base Tokushima, Tokushima, Japan) 

 

Nobuhiko Takada vs. Kazuo Yamazaki 

Takada, having been bested by Akira Maeda in January needs a bounce back win but can he get the job done against Kazuo Yamazaki? Yamazaki was the choice to face Maeda on UWF’s first show; Starting Over. So, everyone clearly thinks he has “it”. Incidentally, there’s a lot more UWF on YouTube now than when I started the 1989 reviews. An account called “JC Satire” has uploaded a lot recently. Check it out! 

 

Yamazaki is a different proposition to Maeda. He’s happy to stand there trading kicks with Takada. Which is a bit odd because his background is judo and volleyball. The opening exchanges are chess style with both guys trying to figure the other out. Yamazaki seems to get an early advantage by first going after Takada’s leg and then catching him with his own high impact kicks. Takada looks poorly prepared.  

 

Even when Takada gets a breakthrough, he finds Yamazaki nimble and capable of countering holds on the mat. When Takada tries to imitate these mat counters, Yamazaki kicks him back into the position. It really feels like Takada has underestimated Yamazaki and is in trouble because of it, the big handsome idiot. Takada does something very cool by spreading his weight on a German suplex attempt, thus landing square on Yamasaki’s face.  

 

You would think this might turn the tide, but Yamazaki is a vicious stiff little bastard who persistently kicks at his opponent. A criticism of Takada is that he’s happy to sit in submissions, just killing time and he never really escapes them here. Yamazaki gets pissed off with his attitude and kicks the hell out of him for DOWN #1. Finally, this pulls some fire out of Takada, but he’s kicked back down for DOWN #2.  

 

Takada, realising he’s having a shocker, rallies and connects on a knee for his own first down. Then he just kneebars Yamazaki for the win, out of nowhere. Huh. This was a weird match. Takada didn’t feel right here at all, and Yamazaki carried the match. They barely used the rules to tell a story either. A disappointment. **¾  

 

Match #6 (March 1, 1989. Capitol Sports Promotions, Carolina, Puerto Rico) 

 

Barbed Wire Match 

WWC Universal Championship vs. WWC TV Championship  

Carlos Colon (c) vs. Jason the Terrible (c) 

I’ve not yet touched on WWC in 1989 so we’re off to the islands for more EPIC BLOODSHED with our boy Carlos Colon. Jason worked in New Japan as “Jackal”. This gimmick is, naturally, from Friday 13th. He’s wearing the hockey mask and looks pretty scary.  

As you can see the barbed wire is more plentiful here than in FMW’s barbed wire matches. Puerto Rico was more about blood than Onita. The hockey mask works to Jason’s favour here because his face is protected. Jason sells like Jason. If you’ve seen the movies, you’ll know what I mean. The gimmick should be more protected though and Jason shouldn’t be leaving his feet, doing silly little stomps or arguing with the referee. It’s a prime demonstration of not investing 100% into the gimmick like Kane did.  

 

Colon bleeds all over the place. That’s the entire match. Carlos pulls Jason’s mask off and puts it on himself. This is the cue for Jason to blade and the crowd are all excited. The terrible WWC main events getting the kind of reactions they always got were wild to me. Bloodshed went a LOOOOONG way in that promotion.  

 

Jason’s career was cut short in 1989 when, while working for Stampede, was involved in a serious car crash. He broke his leg in the crash. Davey Boy Smith, who wasn’t wearing a seat belt, was thrown through the windscreen and was lucky to survive. He suffered cracked vertebrae. The other guy in the car was Chris Benoit, who got away with a minor knee injury. Benoit was back in the ring three days later, Davey missed three months, and Jason was out for a year. When he came back, he didn’t have the same mobility, and his career meandered to a conclusion.  

Back in this match the two blood soaked workers resort to submission attempts. Colon eventually getting the win with a Figure Four as Jason bleeds profusely. This wasn’t a good match but an interesting look at the blood-soaked Puerto Rico territory.  

 

Match #7 (March 8, 1989. AJPW Excite Series, Budokan Hall, Tokyo, Japan) 

 

NWA World Championship 

Ricky Steamboat (c) vs. Tiger Mask II 

Yes, this is an actual match that actually happened in 1989. Steamboat defending his NWA title against Misawa on a tour of AJPW. This is only a couple of weeks after Steamboat beat Flair at Chi-Town Rumble. Misawa had a lot of these ‘dream matches’ under the Tiger Mask gimmick and it’s never landed with me. I don’t know if he had communication issues with American wrestlers, but everything falls flat. Still, you know I’m all over Steamboat vs. Misawa.  

 

The lack of “R” sound, in Japanese, is unfortunate when it comes to “Ricky”. Licky gives his challenger an unbelievable opening shine, where Misawa gets multiple pinfall attempts off dropkicks and roll ups. Steamboat, generous to a fault, gets nothing. He would have been a good touring champion. AJPW were keen on Tiger Mask II and even put together a faction for him. It was called Kekkigun and included Akira Taue. When Misawa became a bigger deal, and replaced Tenryu as Tsuruta’s main opponent, there was the Super Generation Army. Including all the Pillars until Kawada got sick of him.  

 

This match suffers from a lack of planning. After a spirited opening Misawa gets a headlock and stays in it. For a long, long, long, long time. Steamboat’s selling is unreal, so it still works, which is credit to him. There are not many guys who could make me watch a headlock for six minutes. The strikes, in between, are wonderful. The chops and dropkicks. They’re like a mirror image. Steamboat skins the cat at one point and Misawa gets enraged. As a Tiger, that’s offensive to him. 

 

Maybe he just thought it was taking the piss a bit. Regardless of the cause, the resultant brawl is as good as the match gets from a heat perspective. They have a cool finish where Steamboat tries for a piledriver, Misawa switches his weight and lands on top, but Steamboat counters the pin into a sunset flip (style pin) for the win. This has flashes of an awesome match. Like, full on outstanding. Sadly, there’s that long headlock that kills it. *** 

 

Match #8 (March 15, 1989. NJPW Big Fight Series, Nagoya, Japan) 

 

Antonio Inoki vs. Minoru Suzuki  

Haha, what? Yeah, this happened. It wasn’t even Inoki’s only match. He wrestled this as the opener, against a rookie MiSu, and then worked Sid (yes, SID) later on the card. Suzuki debuted in the middle of 1988, but this is already it for New Japan. Suzuki wasn’t happy and bailed for UWF to be with his mentor Yoshiaki Fujiwara (he of the armbar). To modern audiences it sounds insane that Suzuki was in NJPW and just left in his first year. Also, he completely abandoned wrestling a few years in and went into MMA. Not returning to pro-wrestling until 2003.  

 

The fact this match happened right before Suzuki left suggests that Inoki wanted to try him.  Suzuki has always had that ‘Suzukiness’ about him and the first time he puts Inoki down he slaps him across the face! Some people are just built differently. Suzuki hasn’t got a lot of pro-wrestling in his arsenal here and the match is mostly grounded, which Inoki just goes along with. Inoki goes after the Fujiwara Armbar, which is just sensational behaviour. Want to be with your mentor? You can learn that from me! Inoki gets the submission with the Oriental Crossbow after Suzuki survived a few submission attempts.  

 

There’s a nice post-match where Inoki goes to shake hands with the rookie and puts him over. There’s definitely respect there. This was sub ten minutes but a fascinating look at a young Suzuki and Inoki’s approach to his own youngsters. He could have treated Suzuki like crap here. It’s his promotion, after all.  

 

Match #9 (March 18, 1989. WWF, Boston Garden) 

 

Brainbusters vs. Rockers 

Yep, another one! The feud was so over they just kept at it. “His mental capabilities aren’t totally on the ball” – Lord Alfred Hayes comes after Marty Jannetty. The Busters isolate Jannetty in this one and it’s a more traditional match compared to the much vaunted one I did earlier. Marty takes an incredible bump, missing a splash in the corner and bumping out to the floor. The replay reveals just how safe it was, but it looked awesome. It’s the same spot Bobby Heenan does to bail out of the ring. 

 

Arn is so good here. Shawn gets baited into the ring and he just casually lobs Jannetty over the top rope. Jannetty’s eventual tag is him falling backwards into his corner and reaching over his head to tag out. It’s so well done. They repeat the Shawn pin/punch Arn spot but it’s nowhere near as good as in MSG. Shawn has Tully beaten but Arn pulls the ref out for the DQ. Awww! ***½  

 

It feels like WWF’s MOTYC are all Brainbusters vs Rockers and the bar was way low in 1989. The only match that stands out all year, other than that, is Brainbusters vs Harts at Summerslam. It was a poor year for the WWF, in ring, but despite that the Brainbusters were so great compared to everyone else.  

 

Match #10 (March 19, 1989. AJW, Korakuen Hall) 

 

Akira Hokuto vs. Chigusa Nagayo  

Finally, we have some women’s wrestling! With the big promotions eschewing women in the ring in 1989, the most prominent female performers have been valets like Sherri Martel or Nancy Sullivan. This is almost it for Nagayo, about to be forced into retirement just after this because she’d aged out. 25, in case you were wondering.  

 

Nagayo has massive popularity, and the ring is filled with streamers for her entrance. The crowd is also very loud. The constant “CHIG-US-A” chants are wonderful. Hokuto starts the faster and wants to finish it quickly, which results in lots and lots of screaming. Hokuto has a reputation for being a complete badass, stemming from a match in 1987 where she broke her neck and finished the match.  

 

This is a little clumsy compared to classic women’s matches of the era. Sometimes they’re not on the same page and stuff must be re-done or re-imagined. The match kicks on with Nagayo hitting a piledriver, although she goes after a leg rather than the neck following the big spot. Hokuto starts wildly swinging at Chigusa and Nagayo just picks her apart. The leg work is frustratingly long and fills time, rather than changing the course of the match. I have frustrations about limb work that doesn’t go anywhere. Given how long Hokuto spends getting her leg worked over, she should be unable to walk afterwards. 

 

Instead, she immediately gets a Sharpshooter, out of a counter, and sits there in it. If my knees hurt (and they do, all the time), I would not be able to do that. If we ignore the legs, and they do, we advance into the final stage of the match with about 5:00 left. Some of their spot work here is excellent. There’s a Hokuto dropkick, which bumps Nagayo onto her neck. I can see Hokuto trying to sell the leg but it’s wildly inconsistent.  

 

Nagayo seems to enjoy missing spots, which leads her flying into the buckles. It looks cool. Nagayo is, by far, the better worker at this stage of their careers. Hokuto is way off it. All the flaws are hers. Nagayo wins with a sleeper and streamers fly in again. I did not enjoy this. It’s a shame because when joshi lands in the 1980s, it’s unbelievable but Hokuto just wasn’t on it here.  

 

Match #11 (March 20*, 1989. WWF Prime Time Wrestling, Odessa, Texas) 

*If we’re being precise, this was taped on March 8, 1989.  

 

Bret Hart vs. Ted DiBiase 

This made a few Bret comps. If there’s ever a match to showcase how ready Bret was to be a singles star; this is it. All his pure singles stuff is in here. He’s so fluid. The only real criticism of Bret is a lack of personality. His in-ring was always outstanding. Ted DiBiase is a very underrated technician and is an ideal opponent. Bret’s selling and bumping is great, but his real skill comes from offence. Hitting offence smoothly is a very underrated technique.  

 

Comms shill Wrestlemania V, which is funny because this match is better than anything on that show. Live in the now! Ted gets a very long control period in this, following a big Bret miss on the ropes. Ted takes a killer bump on the comeback, kicked off a spinning toehold and going over the ropes. This leads to a brawl on the floor and DCO following a Bret plancha. The execution in this one was, dare I say it, excellent. ***½  

 

Match #12 (March 29, 1989. AJPW Champion Carnival N4, Korakuen Hall, Tokyo) 

 

PWF Championship 

NWA United National Championship 

Stan Hansen (c) vs. Genichiro Tenryu  

These two had a whupass 4.25 match last summer, which is probably the match that made me fall in love with Tenryu as an underdog. More often than not, Tenryu is a jerk but when he wrestled Stan, he got his ass kicked a lot. Seeing as I adored that match from July 1988, this made the mop up.  

If my respect for Tenryu has increased during this flashback series, then my love of Stan Hansen has skyrocketed. Every time I see him, he feels real. There are not many workers that can do that. He has two of the belts that would make up the Triple Crown. Tsuruta has the other one. We’re just before those belts getting unified. It’s on this tour. Hansen has this charming habit of battering people. Not because he’s an asshole but because he was shortsighted and had to follow through on his moves to make sure they connected.  

 

I don’t know what the plan was here, but Tenryu just gets his ass kicked. Not in a fun way either. There are fiery moments from both, but a lot of boring rest holds in between. Stan keeps going after a front facelock.  

There’s a lot of this, which is not the visual I’m wanting from these two. Hansen does make up for it with his lariats, kicks and back elbows. The substance he puts into the simplest of strikes is sensational. He puts his whole body behind the back elbow. They have one very cool spot at least. Tenryu goes outside to head up top but Hansen batters him off the apron with a lariat and Tenryu bumps it into and then over the rail. Excellent stuff.  

 

They have a weird spot with the powerbomb too. Hansen gets up for it but his kickout is so late it looks 100% like a three count. I’m pretty sure the ref’s hand hit the canvas. The crowd starts to get more invested though, they figure we might get a title switch here. Tenryu goes for his finish again and Hansen backdrops out right into the pin to retain. Huh. That was…flat. ***¼. This just lacked the fire and glory of their July 1988 match. It’s nowhere near it.  

 

Match #13 (April 20, 1989. AJPW Champion Carnival N23, Osaka, Japan) 

 

AJPW Triple Crown  

Jumbo Tsuruta (c) vs. Genichiro Tenryu  

Flash ahead a month and Jumbo has secured the Triple Crown by besting Stan Hansen. Now he faces his first challenge; Tenryu. This is the very first Triple Crown title defence. It immediately has more juice than the Hansen matches. Tenryu has more belief in being able to beat Jumbo and Tsuruta wants to cement his spot by beating his main rival.  

They do this thing where, after scrapping for a bit, they just stare each other down. It’s nice little show of respect. One warrior to another. And they stay there for a good while. It feels like it should end in a handshake and then Tenryu slaps Jumbo right across the chops. Ha, you asshole. The idea is that Jumbo felt he’d gained the upper hand enough to just stop here and Tenryu was like “fuck you”. 

 

As with the Hansen matches, we’re not quite there in terms of telling the main event stories. All Japan seemed to do this better in tags in the late 80s. Too often someone resorts to an obvious rest hold. This match having a long chinlock from Tsuruta just killing the energy of it. The whole process just sucks the life out of the match. Tenryu has to do a tope to wake the crowd up again.  

 

Tenryu tries some dismissive selling after this, and you can sense Jumbo getting hot about it. We’re finally hitting the highs the match deserves. The match ends suddenly when Jumbo powerbombs Tenryu at such a high angle he KNOCKS HIM OUT COLD. The pin that follows is simply to get medical attention into the ring. Tenryu literally didn’t know it was happening!  

 

This match is one of those ‘what if’ scenarios, where they were clearly killing time for a huge chunk of the match to build to something bigger than this. The sudden conclusion robs the viewer of the potentially great match but the shock of it is almost worth the disappointment. They’d go again in June and that’s the famous match. ***½  

 

Match #14 (May 4, 1989. UWF May History First, Osaka, Japan) 

 

I would have reviewed far more UWF shows from 1989 if they were online when I started going through the project. However, I don’t like to watch full shows out of order. It’s a weird little obsession I have. So, you’ll have to make do with the odd mop up match as I get caught up. Thanks to JC Satire for uploading all these shows in great quality on YouTube though. Awesome work.  

 

Yoshiaki Fujiwara vs. Masakatsu Funaki 

I’ve picked this match because UWF brought Fujiwara in here, along with some other New Japan workers. Like Funaki, Yoji Anjo and a certain Minoru Suzuki, who wrestled in the opener. The influx in talent, combined with an already hot ticket, allowed them to run Osaka STADIUM here. 23,000 in attendance. The show is headlined by Akira Maeda vs. Dutch judoka Chris Dolman, but this is where the action is at.  

 

Funaki teases some wild roundhouses right at the start here. As if to lay down a marker. “I’m gonna kick this old cunt’s head off!” From there it’s straight to the mat, which fucking rules because it’s two guys who won’t sit in holds but will keep working. You might not realise it, if you’ve only seen his latter-day post-MMA stuff, but Masakatsu Funaki was awesome.  

He’s aggressive, fast and technically gifted. Basically, everything you want in a pro wrestler. He spends most of the match trying to bait Fujiwara into a fight, which Fujiwara doesn’t want as he wants to keep it on the mat and clean. Eventually Fujiwara gets pissed off, but it doesn’t go Funaki’s way. Fujiwara stomps the shit out of him in the corner. Funaki has this tremendous look of disbelief on his face, knowing he’s just unleashed a beast and doesn’t know how to deal with it. 

 

Having been stunned at stand up, Funaki takes it back to the mat and the life is just sucked out of the match. Well, that sucks. It’s like we hit a heat brick wall. Fujiwara gets disqualified for a strike, but he convinces the referee that his hand was open, or something, and we restart. The idea here is that Fujiwara wasn’t familiar with the rules. Funaki allows it and then gets caught in a kneebar and submitted. Baka. Should have taken the win. ***¼. The dodgy finish didn’t help matters. This had incredible life at times. Especially when Funaki started going after Fujiwara with leg kicks.  

 

I watched the rest of the show, because wrestling, and it’s pretty great. Miyato vs Suzuki has a lot of nice grappling and Suzuki fails to come to terms with the striking, which is how he loses. Miyato is a kicky fucker. Yoji Anjo vs. Mark Rush is decent, and Anjo throws a nice suplex before winning with a choke. Yamazaki vs. Takada is on the long side, but they nail down the gimmick with the knock downs in the latter stages. Yamazaki has really grown on me. I started out a Takada man but now I’m a Yamazaki guy. He wins with a head kick out of nowhere, when he’d already been knocked down four times himself, and we move on.  

 

The main event of Akira Maeda vs. Chris Dolman is pure Inokism. Bring in some star from another discipline and then beat him to legitimise the sport of wrestling, and coincidentally yourself. Dolman, a big sweaty Dutchman with curly hair, must have liked Maeda because he followed him to RINGS. I can only assume that main eventing in front of 23k was a good pay day. Maeda ends up winning with a kneebar and everyone goes nuts.  

 

Match #15 (May 6, 1989. AJW Wrestlemarinepiad I – The Day the Music Died, Yokohama, Japan) 

 

WWWA Championship 

Lioness Asuka (c) vs. Madusa Miceli 

I wanted to do the whole show, but it doesn’t seem to be available anywhere. The undercard included Chigusa Nagayo’s retirement series, where she lost six matches in quick succession. Bull Nakano then won a 30-person two ring battle royal. Crush Gals reunited here too, for their first pairing in a year. That means Asuka has already wrestled twice tonight, before this main event. Way to take Madusa seriously!  

Asuka is also retiring, although both she and Nagayo would end up coming back. The end of the Crush Gals era did leave a hole in women’s wrestling in Japan. As much as I love Madusa (pictured above), she’s not capable of filling that void. She has improved a lot since the last time we saw her stateside though.  

 

The sub-heading of this show is “The Day the Music Died” because of all the singing and dancing you had with the Crush Gals. Asuka is the clear crowd favourite and Madusa finds it hard to avoid common heel tropes. The referee here is Nick Bockwinkel, who at least is still mobile, which makes him preferable to a lot of old timers who guest refereed. The crowd scream “ASU-KAAAAA”. The support for the Crush Gals has to be heard to be believed. They were huge stars. 

 

The one thing this match does a good job of is how real the struggle feels. Asuka looks like she’s really having to fight Madusa off. Part of that is the occasional misunderstanding leading to shoot-ish grappling for position. Part of it stems from some sandbagging. None of it is intentional but it adds to the ‘struggle’ vibe. Madusa is learning on the job. She fails to take an Irish whip at one point, Asuka counters it into a waistlock, audibly calls for a German and Madusa falls on top of her. All this adds to the struggle aspect. Sure, Madusa isn’t having a good match, but Asuka is dragging her through it. In some ways that’s more impressive. 

 

Madusa finally comes good when she goes after Asuka with what looks like Terry Funk’s branding iron. It’s vicious attack and Madusa follows in with punches and headbutts. Asuka sells like she’s dead and the only thing that’s missing is blood. Given how long she was on the floor for after the initial attack I’m shocked she didn’t come up bloodied. Asuka generously shows Madusa how to throw a punch properly afterwards too!  

 

Asuka does a Giant Swing in this, which is absolutely wild. It looks barely in control and I’m waiting for her to either wipe out Bockwinkel or smack into the ropes. Somehow all of this ‘not quite right’ feeling of the match has enhanced it. Madusa just can’t land stuff when it matters though. Her German suplex is crap and her leg jam is crap. These are key near falls. You need to land them. Asuka comes back with a moonsault to retain. **¾. Sadly, lacking when it mattered but a hell of a struggle and worth watching for that alone.  

 

Match #16 (May 9, 1989. NWA World Championship Wrestling, Center Stage, Atlanta, Georgia) 

 

Terry Funk vs. Eddie Guerrero  

This was another 1989 curio that I just had to watch. Guerrero is making his WCW debut here. His next televised match for the company would be in 1995. Eddie looks tiny, which he always was but he’s just so small for 1980s wrestling. Funk seems unimpressed with Eddie’s ability to do forward rolls. Funk busts out the Giant Swing and it stinks! Terry strikes me as the kind of guy who wouldn’t test to see if he could do something in training. He’d just do it and see what happened. It’s wild to watch one of the hottest heels in wrestling take bumps for a very young luchadore. Funk throws Eddie right over the top, which was still a DQ in 1989, and it’s not here for reasons. Eddie comes off the top to the floor! Eddie takes three awesome bumps. The best is a baseball slide sending him over the rail. Funk wins with a kneedrop after a piledriver on the floor and goes straight off the pin into the stands to try and pick a fight! Haha. This was wonderful. *** 

 

Match #17 (May 12, 1989. AJPW Super Power Series N1, Korakuen Hall, Tokyo, Japan) 

 

British Bulldogs vs. Can-Am Express 

The Can-Am’s, if you’re unfamiliar, are Doug Furnas (American powerhouse) and Dan Kroffat (Canadian grappler). If you’ve never heard the name Dan Kroffat, boy are you in for a good time. Dynamite has had his hair cut short and looks like a thug.  

Davey meanwhile, is clearly on the gas. Look at the size difference between them! I can only assume the injured Billington had reduced his drugs intake after leaving the WWF. Furnas is a mirror image of the big man and has a competitive background in powerlifting. Sadly, this provokes Davey into some WWF inspired tests of strength. I’ve seen a lot of Davey’s WWF singles matches and they’re full of this garbage.  

 

Dynamite Kid, clearly bored by all ths macho bullshit, comes in, hits a tope immediately and then suplexes Kroffat on the floor. The chemistry that Dynamite and Kroffat have is delightful. Kroffat has a countering backdrops sequence with Davey, which is also awesome. There’s a feeling, with Davey especially, that he sees someone else do a move and thinks “I can fucking do that” and off he goes. The trouble is, he would continue that mentally into matches with the Warlord. If only he’d been booked exclusively with good wrestlers. 

 

The match just doesn’t quite hit the higher gear that would have had it score big numbers. It’s just consistently very good throughout. Dynamite, albeit limited by his injuries, brings great urgency to proceedings but I’m still sad seeing him deteriorate before my eyes. He really shouldn’t be winning the pin in this, regardless of reputation, and his backdrop with bridge on Kroffat isn’t quite there. This was the Bulldogs first match back on tour. Dynamite had missed a few months resting up. It showed. ***¾. Davey might have been the MVP of this match.  

 

Match #18 (May 21, 1989. UWF May History Second, Tokyo Bay NK Hall, Chiba, Japan) 

 

As with the previous show, this is all available on YouTube now. If that was the case before I got into the mop up territory, I would have watched the whole show. So, the plan is to do that anyway.  

 

Match #1 is Minoru Suzuki vs. Kiyoshi Tamura, and it is HOT SHIT, god damn. Tamura is a lightweight but muscular former sumo who excells at both striking and grappling. This is an ideal place for him to be. Sadly, jerkass “shooter” Akira Maeda broke his orbital bone and I won’t see much of him in this version of UWF. Suzuki taps him out in five minutes, but it was a glorious five minutes. I cannot wait to see this guy again. Like, holy fuck, he’s so good.  

 

Match #2 is Yoshiaki Fujiwara vs. Yoji Anjo. Fujiwara starts like he means to win this inside thirty seconds but the match soon becomes middling grapplefuckery. My main beef is that while Anjo is fine, he never floats my boat like Fujiwara. Also, Fujiwara’s fear of leg kicks looks downright dodgy. Fujiwara wins with a leglock out of nowhere. This was pretty ok and stuff.  

 

Match #3 is Bob Backlund vs. Masaharu Funaki. I have so much time for Bob Backlund. He didn’t need to come and wrestle shoot style in his old age. Keeping in mind this is five years after he dropped the WWF title to the Iron Sheik. He could have coasted by on former glories instead of coming to UWF and grappling these lunatics.  

I love how Backlund gets all fired up and threatens to turn this into a punch-up every time he gets outclassed on the mat. Funaki is happy to try and bait him too. Funaki, if he hadn’t already won me over, controls this with a cravat. Bob doesn’t quite force the pace enough in this. He’s old school and is happy to let the crowd get into holds as they develop, so Funaki has to kick the shit out of him. He has to. I don’t make the rules.  

 

Bob clearly gets the message and delivers the kind of elbow strike you’d more usually associate with Misawa. Bob comes into this with a black eye and Funaki doesn’t seem to care. He instigates a full on fight and the SLAPS on it are fucking sick. He slaps him in the eye and then starts punching poor Bob in the back of the head! I’m surprised Bob cooperates so much after that. I was hoping for it to get messy.  

 

Funaki is an absolute dick to Backlund here. It’s the kind of disrespect I wish more Japanese wrestlers had leaned into. Far too often Japanese workers let Americans beat them up. The finish is downright odd as Backlund powers out of an armbar, places Funaki on the ropes and the poor bastard falls into Bob’s trap and hits a missile dropkick. Which is contrary to the rules. There’s no coming off the top rope in a shoot! Madness. ***½.  

 

Match #4 is Nobuhiko Takada vs. Johnny Barrett. You may know Johnny as WWF jobber Jumbo Baretta. He’s a large, fat, softly spoken man. Johnny cuts an interview where he says he wants to wrestle Maeda next, which actually happened. Given the result here, that’s odd. The result is Takada brutalising Barrett and almost completely controlling him. When Barrett, who comes across as comic relief, gets anything the crowd sound surprised. Takada eventually gets fed up with making a mockery of the sport and wins with an armbar.  

 

Match #5 is Akira Maeda vs. Kazuo Yamazaki. The hope is that Yamazaki punts Maeda’s head off. The match sees Maeda trying to take little liberties and Yamazaki putting him firmly in his place. My favourite part of the match is when Maeda tries to fire up after his second down and Yamazaki kicks the crap out of him and puts right back down again. Maeda tries a capture fisherman suplex in this and he drops Yamazaki right on his head. Maeda wins via submission and I’m getting pretty tired of his bullshit now. They run this thing after the match where Maeda straightens out Yamazaki’s head and it’s like…what the actual fuck do you think you are? At least Hogan was safe, you’re just a cunt mate.  

 

Match #23 (May 24, 1989. AJPW Super Power Series, Akira, Japan) 

 

Dan Spivey & Can-Am Express vs. Genichiro Tenryu, Toshiaki Kawada & Samson Fuyuki 

Spivey is in WCW but took May-June off to come on tour because he just missed the King’s Road so much. No Sid. He doesn’t do King’s Road. He does softball. This is to build for Tenryu vs. Spivey a few days later, which Tenryu (hilariously) won in under five minutes. Kawada seems more at home scrapping with the Can-Ams. That seems to be where his confidence was at the time.  

 

Doug Furnas is so fucking fired up here that people start throwing streamers at him in MID MATCH. He’s out here throwing dropkicks and doing backflips. His leapfrogs in this are insanely high. Furnas picking a weird match to be the most athletic of his entire career in. Spivey is proabably too large to be in this. He struggles to effectively bump for his smaller opponents.  

 

A word on Danny Kroffat. He’s so good. He does this release crucifix powerbomb on Kawada in here as a total throwaway. If someone had done that in WCW it would have been the coolest spot of the year. He looks a lot less cool when he goes to German suplex Samson Fuyuki and just drops him across his own face. Everyone spills in for a fight and it’s clear they’re trying to replicate the hate that makes the Tsuruta-Tenryu tags so cool but there’s no hate here.  

 

It’s weird that Spivey landed in AJPW after WCW and even weirder that he stayed here until Waylon Mercy. He looks so out of his depth in this match. Especially when Doug Furnas is on his team and cooking. Spivey’s attempts to get into it with Tenryu just stink. No wonder he got squashed. As the match goes on, I can’t get over how great Furnas is in this. He’s gone up to 11. Tenryu is barely in this match. When he eventually gets a hot tag, he grabs Kroffat and powerbombs him for the win. ***¾. 

 

This would have been better if it had been Can-Ams vs. Kawada & Fuyuki. Tenryu was clearly not interested, and Spivey just sucked. All that took away from how GREAT the Can-Ams were. Especially Furnas, who ruled here.  

 

Match #24 (June 5, 1989. AJPW Super Power Series, Nippon Budokan, Tokyo, Japan) 

 

Triple Crown Championship 

Jumbo Tsuruta (c) vs. Genichiro Tenryu  

Tsuruta unified the belts back in April with a win over Stan Hansen. Tenryu got the first shot but was knocked out, cold, in the match with a powerbomb. This is the rematch and it’s a huge match. 15k in Budokan to witness it.  

I love that Jumbo gets red and blue streamers. The same as the ring. He’s the personification of All Japan. Tenryu gets yellow streamers because his boots are yellow. Says it all really. Stan Hansen shows up at ringside! The crowd are molten before we even start, which is just wonderful. This has such intensity. I don’t think there’s a match in history up to this point that has that “this shit is IMPORTANT” vibe like this match.  

 

Every sequence is sensational. Tenryu goes after a chop, it lands, so he hits the ropes to follow up and Jumbo kicks him square in the face. Everything feels bang on too. Every move is intense and important. Tsuruta forces this. Everything he does looks fucking ace. It pushes Tenryu to get on his level. It might be the best wrestling performance by one single wrestler in the entire history of the sport.  

 

The only question that remains is whether Tenryu can match it. The answer is…not quite. But he tries his best and the chops alone should put him on that level, but Jumbo is just different class here. They tease a Jumbo powerbomb, knowing full well it knocked Tenryu out, and the reaction is awesome. Knock his ass out, Jumbo! Teach him the motherfuckin’ business!  

 

Jumbo’s beating of Tenryu is like Hansen’s beating of Tenryu. He’s bullying the little asshole. The interpretation of wrestling here is just at a new higher level. There’s a spot where Jumbo goes after the backdrop driver and Tenryu kicks off the ropes as he’s taken off his feet. He still lands hard but the change in angle means that Jumbo hurts himself in the process. It’s so beautifully subtle that your average jabronie might not even notice but it’s gorgeous.  

 

Tenryu’s ring positioning is arguably his best trait. It’s certainly excellent here. He knows where he is and the way he rolls onto his back nearer the ropes than he was before has me in awe a few times here. He’s inviting the pinfall but getting himself into position to drape a foot over the ropes and save kick-out energy. The cameras get in good and tight on the impact of these moves and they’re working snug as fuck. Like, you can’t get a piece of paper between Jumbo’s knee strikes and Tenryu’s head.  

 

They work in another great call back spot where Tenryu goes after a powerbomb and Tsuruta backdrops out of it right into a pin, which is how Hansen beat Tenryu, but it doesn’t work this time. Hansen is heavier, to be fair. There’s another great block spot where Jumbo goes after a belly to belly and Tenryu hooks his leg around Jumbo’s and falls on top. His counter wrestling is so good. You couldn’t even do that spot now; people would think it was a botch.  

 

The crowd reaction to Jumbo kicking out of the powerbomb is SO FUCKING GREAT. You can hear them do the “1-2-3″ and instead of not counting three, they count the three. They’re that convinced it’s over and the “aaahhhhhhh” from the kick out and subsequent noise is just perfect. That’s when you know you’ve got them. Tenryu jacks him up for another one for the actual three spot and the belts. Ahhhh, lads! Lads! This is so good. It’s better than I remember it. Jumbo goes to offer a handshake to the new champ, and he ignores him. ***** 

 

Oh no, is Flair-Steamboat not MOTY? Oh, shit. I can’t think of a thing I’d change here. It’s just so perfect. Obviously, I have some issues with Tenryu and him winning here and then leaving in 1990 feels like they fucked up. Jumbo should have just stayed as champion, the entire time. Fuck Tenryu, he’s leaving anyway. It would have intensified the actual passing of the torch to Misawa when that rolled around. This is awesome though. Tokyo Sports MOTY, five flakes from Davey Meltzer. Just an unbelievable, intense, popular and era defining contest.  

 

Match #25 (July 1, 1989. AJPW Summer Action Series, Omiya, Saitama, Japan) 

 

Kenta Kobashi vs. Toshiaki Kawada 

No, this isn’t the first time. That happened in 1988, a couple of times. But it’s the first one of note. Previously, Kobashi had showed a lot of fight and resilience in his matches without winning anything. He’s only been wrestling about 18 months at this point and Kawada, who debuted way back in 1982, is the salty veteran, looking to put him in his place. Both guys are not ‘there’ yet. Kawada has looked good in tags this year, but his singles work is clearly a little off. After a little early excitement, they spend a lot of time in leglocks.  

Kobashi feels like he’s run out of spots after 5:00. His selling is a bit sketchy too. I do like that Kawada guides him through the match. After he starts to struggle Kawada is like “ok, now I’m going to kick you for a couple of minutes”. Kobashi finds his way again and is soon popping off high crossbodies and tabletop suplexes. For a rookie, he’s good. Lariat and a dragon suplex finishes for Kawada and he goes 3-0 against this young punk, who won’t amount to anything.  

 

Match #26 (July 2, 1989. WKA Ikki Kajiwara Memorial Martial Arts Festival, Korakuen Hall, Tokyo, Japan) 

 

Atsushi Onita vs. Masashi Aoyagi 

The only version I can find of this has the wrong date but I’m going on the assumption that the uploader has just got the date wrong as there’s no other match it could be. Also, Onita is wearing a yellow wifebeater that he definitely wasn’t wearing in FMW. Now…this match is supposed to be a SHOOT, during a martial arts festival. Aoyagi is a karate guy, who’s never wrestled in his life. His life is about to change!  

 

R1. Onita gets kicked in the head and goes straight down. Onita immediately starts being disrespectful towards Aoyagi and the referee but then he starts out-wrestling him too. They roll around a bit and Onita starts jawing with people at ringside! Keeping in mind, people thought this was a real fight! It’s getting warm in here. 

R2. Onita punches Aoyagi in the face and starts kicking him when he’s down. The seconds are ENRAGED by this and almost pour into the ring. This is great! Onita continues to work the crowd, who are the biggest marks on planet earth. Onita is blatantly giving away that it’s a work with his selling, but I guess this crowd didn’t watch a lot of puroresu.  

 

R3. Onita spends the time between rounds selling his little heart out. He falls off the stool! How did they not know he was working? Aoyagi is a straight up fella for letting Onita come into this and damage Aoyagi’s rep with throws and stuff.  

 

R4. This is a ‘best of’ the other rounds with Aoyagi landing kicks and Onita being a jerk and punching him over the ref’s head. It starts to get really heated when Onita backdrops Aoyagi out of the ring and hits him with a chair. This almost incites a riot and people look legitimately mad. IT’S STILL REAL TO ME, DAMN IT! But wait, the referee thinks he was a bit premature on calling for the bell and we re-start. Onita immediately headbutts Aoyagi and busts him open hardway. There’s blood everywhere. The referee tries to calm it down again, so Onita throws him out of the ring and that’s a DQ! **** 

 

For the heat on this alone, it’s worth a high rating. Onita working the rubes. How dare he disrespect karate? The heat on this is off the scale. People were ready to get into the ring. Having an audience that doesn’t know it’s a work is a huge blessing. The seconds pile in afterwards and a fist fight ensues. You know what, fuck it, let’s call this ****½. Art.  

 

Match #27 (July 13*, 1989. NJPW Summer Fight Series N20, Ryugoku Sumo Hall, Tokyo, Japan) 

 

*It’s actually not, I will explain at the end.  

 

IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship 

Jushin Liger (c) vs. Naoki Sano  

A word on what a ballache New Japan classics are to find thanks to NJ World…I hate it. New Japan have been strolling around copyright striking stuff off the internet to try and sell their modern product. But that means all the classic stuff, which isn’t on World, isn’t anywhere now. It just doesn’t exist. They’ve removed themselves from history. Tremendous work all round, jackasses. 

 

Thankfully some gentle soul has uploaded this match to bilibili. This is still very early “Gen 1” Liger before “Classic Liger” costume. Sano is a weird guy because he left New Japan at the point where he got over. Most of the Sano matches I’ve seen (bar the ‘big’ NJPW ones) are in NOAH when he’s old.  

 

Here Sano is aggressive, and Liger makes for a sympathetic babyface as he’s being stomped into the mat. Sano focuses on the arm and is a jerk about it. The way he Irish whips Liger, with his bad arm, and then yanks him back in mid-whip is sickening. They tease sick moves in this. The superplex to the floor happens but in stages. Likewise, Sano doing a dive while Liger rolls back into the ring. It sounds disgusting but it’s quite safe.  

 

This tumble is left on a wide shot, and Sano comes up bloodied. Liger is still selling the injured shoulder, which is what sets him apart from many of his contemporaries. Since Sano’s return to the ring, Liger has been brutalising him. Every single move is to the head. Kicks, elbows, piledrivers. Sano’s comeback is all high risk and then, out of nowhere, he counters a German suplex into a Fujiwara armbar and all that selling pays off. Liger was so good at convincing people he was going to lose, even though he was the star of the division.  

 

Sano wins this with a backdrop driver off the ropes and it’s at that point that I realise the match has been mis-labelled and is the same August match I can watch anywhere. Damn it. Look what you’ve done New Japan?! You bastards. Anyway, this fucking rules. The limb work and the blood really add to the match. **** 

 

Match #28 (July 15, 1989. NJPW Summer Action Series N10, Korakuen Hall, Tokyo, Japan) 

 

Genichiro Tenryu & Stan Hansen vs. Jumbo Tsuruta & Kenta Kobashi 

Tenryu winning the belt, and being cheered on in the process by Hansen, leads to this tag with poor Kobashi the whipping boy. The REACTIONS here are awesome. The crowd are rabid for the introductions and Jumbo goes and beats the shit out of Tenryu at the bell. Holy fuck, the crowd is MOLTEN. You can’t hear what they’re saying because half the crowd is chanting for Jumbo, and half is chanting for Tenryu. Oh my god, this is so good, and nothing has happened yet! Kobashi gets in Tenryu’s face and the whole building is all “KO-BASH-EE”.  

 

It’s at this point I realise I get to relive the entire career of Kenta Kobashi, probably the greatest wrestler to ever live, and a huge smile hits me out of nowhere. Kenta takes a wicked beating. He’s eating offence and there’s nothing Jumbo can do about it. Everything works in this match. The crowd are so in love with every single moment. All Japan was becoming the perfect storm of awesomeness.  

 

Kobashi doesn’t get much going in this but everything he does hit gets a huge reaction. He’s so gutsy. The chanting is so loud for him and so intense my phone starts ringing, and I CAN’T HEAR IT. Kobashi is already a genius at selling. He takes this beating and stays down, like he can barely move, and he’s grabbing onto Tenryu’s foot to stop him. Kobashi brings so much heart. It’s proof that wins don’t mean anything in wrestling. It’s all about your attitude and if your attitude is good, you can’t fail. 

 

Tenryu starts with his ring positioning again, getting his foot on the ropes when he looks beaten against Tsuruta and we’re already into the interweaving of psychology from one match to the next, which would produce a decade of unparalleled excellence in AJPW’s rings. Kobashi’s path to winning the title in seven years begins here. The way he gets a comeback on Tenryu, the champ no less, is incredible. The way he backs Tenryu into a corner and starts slapping him in the face. Epic. A star is born. He looked borderline unsure of himself with Kawada in singles. Here, he’s a God in the making.  

 

I think he might annoy Hansen slightly, as he drops him on his head on a suplex and Stan is somewhat dismissive of his offence afterwards. He marches Kobashi over to Tsuruta and gets Jumbo to tag in. And then he punishes Tsuruta for daring to show up to this fight with a child in tow. When Kobashi calls for the Fisherman suplex and hits it, there’s a tiny feeling that he might even do the unthinkable and pin Tenryu. Then he eats a powerbomb and loses. Oh, my god, I forgot how good this promotion was. ****½  

 

Match #29 (July 24, 1989. UWF Fighting Square Hakata, Hakata Starlanes, Fukuoka, Japan) 

 

As before, I intended to just watch one match from this show and instead I’m doing the whole thing. I swear these UWF uploads are drawing out this process! You can’t say I haven’t been thorough in this 1989 mop up.  

 

Match #1: Mark Rush vs. Minoru Suzuki. This is long. Very long. It goes to a 30:00 draw. I’m distracted, the entire time, by Rush’s jazzy blue zebra print tights. If you turn up to a shoot fight with those on, you command respect. It kept me awake too, so that’s a bonus.  

Match #2: Masakatsu Funaki vs. Tatsuo Nakano. OH SHIT, THIS FUCKING RULES! Nakano kicks away Funaki’s handshake and it’s fucking onnnnnnn baby. Funaki is supposed to be the Next Big Thing and Nakano is all “not on my watch, sir”. The result of a surly chubbster going head-to-head with an elite athlete is a lot of strikes. Initially with parity but then with Funaki taking control with his superior body and then Nakano fighting back with pure GUTS. To give you an idea of how stiff and intense this is, they have a doctor jump in there after less than three minutes to check the damage to Nakano’s face.  

He’s badly hurt and there’s lots of blood. When the doctor allows him to continue, he gives a little fist pump to the crowd and they’re right into the “NAK-AN-NO” chants. This match is a whole bunch of ‘swinging for the fences’ striking with defensive takedowns in between (“please stop hitting me”) and associated bloodshed. I love Nakano here. He’s so tenacious. He grabs a hold on the leg to try and stop the kicking and Funaki stomps his little head in AND HE WON’T LET GO! This is one of the greatest underdog performances of our lives. 

 

With Nakano bleeding profusely the doctor comes in again and Nakano pushes him out of the ring! FUCK YOU, DOC, I WILL FIGHT UNTIL I AM DEAD. There’s a moment later where Funaki is hanging on to Nakano’s leg for dear life that mirrors the earlier barrage the other way and Nakano immediately decks the little punk with a kick to the face. Funaki battles back and gets a Boston crab for the win. It’s a shame they didn’t finish with a KO here because it was set up for it and it doesn’t feel right that anyone gave up after that match. Argh, I had the five-star fear here. If they had a better finish, it was arguably MOTY and that’s against Flair-Steamboat and Tsuruta-Tenryu. Awesome, awesome match. One of the great sub-ten minuters. ****¾.  

 

Match #3: Nobuhiko Takada vs. Shigeo Miyato. Well, good luck following that, lads! I am still buzzing. Pro wrestling, when it’s THAT good, nothing touches it. Miyato is eager not to be outdone and comes in all kicky. Miyato wants to prove he can go with a big dog. Which is basically the theme of most Takada matches now he’s beaten Maeda. Takada is dismissive of Miyato and the threat he poses. He shrugs off the kicks and then stomps Shigeo into the ropes. It’s like he doesn’t take Miyato seriously until he almost loses and then he tries to break the kid’s leg. The performance is borderline docile, a complaint I have about Takada outside of his big matches. There feels like a line where, when Miyato crosses it, Takada just says, “that’s enough of that” and he puts it to bed. Miyato punches himself out in the end and Takada picks him off. I’ll go *** for Miyato’s heart here but Takada’s approach was leisurely.  

 

Match #4: Akira Maeda vs. Yoji Anjo. This follows suit from the last match with underdog Anjo against heavy hitter Maeda. Only you know Maeda isn’t standing for that kicky, kicky bollocks. He takes 2 (two) kicks before slapping the shit out of Anjo. Poor Anjo thinks he’s got Maeda reeling and goes for a dropkick. Maeda promptly knees him in the head. Anjo controls for a bit with a leglock and he’s clearly talking shit because the crowd “OOOOOHHHH” when nothing is happening. Maeda looks a lot more serious after it, so he’s hot. It’s a little surprising the match rumbles on after such a clear flash point. Maeda starts to look sluggish, and they do a good job of teasing the upset. Then Maeda just wins with a half crab. Similiar story to the previous match but Maeda was better here than Takada in the last match. ***¼.  

 

Match #5: Yoshiaki Fujiwara vs. Kazuo Yamazaki. This is an interesting dynamic with surly veteran Fujiwara (was he ever young?) against potential breakout star Yamazaki, who I adore every time I see him. Both guys look like a pile of potatoes, in human form, and I respect that. There are too many well-defined muscular types in wrestling. Very boring. As with the previous couple of matches, the younger guy does a lot of kicking. It’s mainly leg kicks here, but Fujiwara gets a tad upset about it and retorts.  

 

Fujiwara does an odd shootstyle Fisherman suplex, which doesn’t help as it’s designed to go into a pin and all Yamazaki has to do is slightly lift one shoulder up. Fujiwara openly mocks the balletic style of Yamazaki’s kicks, which is funny to see. Especially as modern wrestling is oft criticised for ‘sequences’ and doing choreography over substance. That implication is present right here. It’s also mad we’re FOUR YEARS ahead of the first proper MMA promotions; Pancrase and UFC. It’s clear people will eat that up!  

 

Both guys are sensible and when they take a down, they don’t rush back up. They stay down and take the count. Compare that to earlier on when less experienced guys were springing back up, determined to prove they weren’t hurt. It has proper ‘chess match’ vibes. I like that Fujiwara goes from mockery and underestimating Yamazaki to realising he’s in a proper struggle and changing his tactics.  

They rack up a lot of downs too. Clearly eager to incorporate the rules into the match, something the UWF has struggled with since Maeda-Takada last year. Fujiwara’s body shots in this are glorious. If you want to see a worked punch, check it out. Yamazaki responds by going after the kidneys. Now it’s personal. Liver shots and kidney shots so they can’t do sake shots later? Outrageous.  

 

Fujiwara, as the match progresses, shows an increasing fear of Yamazaki’s kicks and other strikes. He’s selling the impact those strikes have had on him already. When he engages now, he looks to get in close and limit the range of those kicks. It’s like watching someone figure someone else out in early MMA. Those close range strikes cause Fujiwara to bleed from the mouth and a pissed off Fujiwara finishes with a headbutt.  

 

While I enjoyed most of this, it does feel long, at 29:00. There’s a lot of strategy and slow bits in between the fun stuff. Fujiwara makes you work, as a viewer, for the goodness. I respect it but it’s not as fun as two guys just going at it like earlier. This is the longer version of that and it’s less effective. Less fiery good. ***¾.  

 

Match #34 (July 28, 1989. EMLL Super Viernes, Arena Mexico, Mexico City) 

 

Two Out of Three Falls 

Hair vs. Hair 

El Dandy vs. Emilio Charles Jr  

Oh, ok, it’s time to dip into some lucha libre. EMLL is CMLL before the 1991 name change. EMLL has not long departed the NWA and is trying to forge a fresh identity for itself under booker Antonio Pena* and new owner, and grandson of Salvador Lutteroth (founder of the company), Paco Alonso. Two names that, I’m sure, will pop up a great deal over the next decade of Mexican wrestling. Currently, EMLL’s main rival is UWA.  

 

*Pena would break away from CMLL/EMLL in 1992 and form AAA, which brings us up to modern day Mexican promotional rivalries.  

 

Emilio has an incredible barnet, so you must pray he doesn’t lose it. He’s the villain of the piece here or “rudo” in lucha terms. Dandy comes in hurt and has to fight from underneath. Having come from UWF to this is somewhat jarring as the strikes are, if I’m being polite, sub optimal. Charles wins fall #1 with a splash off the ropes. Quite often the opening fall in a two out of three falls, in Mexico, is bad. This was no exception.  

 

Fall #2 sees Charles ramp it up a bit and he busts El Dandy open. Angered, El Dandy tries to do the same to Charles. It’s a lucha blood bath and those delightful afros are on the line! I would question El Dandy going after Emilio with a headbutt, when he’s already bloodied, but who am I to question El Dandy? El Dandy goes ahead and gets La Majistral to even the falls up. 1-1.  

 

Fall #3 is the big decider. There’s clearly a lot of hatred here, which is nice. Hate is usually the main reason for blood. If there was no hate before the blood, there’s definitely hate afterwards. Charles is struggling so he kicks El Dandy in the balls and the referee, while upset, does nothing about it. You can’t really shave someone’s hair off for a low blow. El Dandy, supreme dumbass, tries for a diving headbutt and misses. YOU’RE BUSTED OPEN, SIR. Do you need me to call you a doctor? El Dandy goes up again, and misses again, and this time the crowd’s apathy towards this fucking thicko is palpable.  

 

Oddly enough, the match improves dramatically after this with a bunch of dives and cool shit and the strikes are even good. Why couldn’t they have started with this before all the blood? It’s out of sequence. Then they both get counted out for the unsatisfying conclusion. It is immediately followed by a great brawl around ringside with them swinging for the fences on the punches. This was messy and the first two falls sucked. However, it got great in fall #3 and I can see why this gets a lot of love. ***¼  

 

Match #34 (August 2, 1989. Lonesome Pine Specials – “Masters of Percussion”, Louisville, Kentucky) 

 

Orchestra Match 

Jeff Jarrett vs. Dutch Mantell 

Ok, you may not be aware of this, but I am, so you’re going to have to read about it. Basically, it’s a special on PBS where Walter Hayes and the Wichita State University Percussion ensemble play a piece called “War Games for Ten Percussionsists and Two Wrestlers” and Jarrett and Mantell have a match while it’s playing. It’s supposed to be a ‘thing’ where the match matches the orchestra. I am all for it. It’s something unique and different.  

 

So, the orchestra is either side of a pit and they start playing and then the ring rises up through the pit with the referee giving his instructions. It’s very cool. The beats of the match oddly don’t match the beats of the orchestra. I don’t know how much this was organised beforehand but based on the way it’s presented…I’d say not much. I’m sure they could have done a better job than this. What the band are playing and what the wrestlers are doing never seems to coexist. The big high spots are met by crescendos in the music. The only time it seems to click is when the ring is being raised and when the wrestlers are circling. Any connection is disconnected to the music.  

 

The one point of interest is when the whole thing is concluding, Dutch bails to attack one of the musicians with his own drum. They don’t even finish the song at the same time as the match. Jarrett winning with a sunset flip while the “Masters of Percussion” are still wanking about. Poor form. Anyway, it’s a load of shit but it could have been something. I’m glad I’ve seen it.  

 

This is where, timeline wise, the Liger vs. Sano match should go!  

 

Match #35 (August 13, 1989. UWF Midsummer Creation, Yokohama, Japan) 

 

Yes, another UWF show that’s been uploaded in full to YouTube since I started the 1989 trek. So, we go again! This column is going to be so god damn long. 17,000 in Yokohama Arena for this one. UWF was drawing crazy numbers, and it would only improve! It’s equally crazy how UWF went from being a New Japan offshoot to one of the most popular attractions in Japan, virtually overnight, and then collapsed in on itself almost as soon. Akira Maeda’s ego has a lot to answer for.  

 

Match #1: Shigeo Miyato vs. Kiyoshi Tamura. Two kicky youngsters go head-to-head here. Tamura, I’ve seen roughly five minutes from, and is one of my favourite wrestlers of all time. Miyato’s tactic is to take away the kicks by grounding Tamura and working the leg. No one wants to see that mate. Miyato’s secondary tactic is kicking Tamura in the liver until he can’t stand and that’s how it finishes. A good use of the UWF knock down rules here but otherwise not the scrap I was hoping for.  

 

Match #2: Tatsuo Nakano vs. Minoru Suzuki. Following Nakano’s outstanding performance against Funaki, he’s in this dream of a match. They try and replicate that Funaki-Nakano magic by going nuts with the strikes. Nakano’s bar brawling versus Suzuki’s targeted Suzukism.  

Nakano’s nose, which was messed up already thanks to Funaki, starts gushing blood after about a minute. Nakano goes after a single leg and Suzuki catches it and hauls Nakano up into the Gotch Piledriver! Suzuki is smooth and elegant here, which makes for a great contrast to Nakano’s ‘in your face’ basics. Nakano reminds me of Tank Abbott. That’s his style of fighting. Punches.  

 

Nakano is such a great worker because it feels like he’s giving it his all. Compared to some of the company’s robotic technicians, he’s a blue-collar hero. Nakano comes scrapping back with ugly knees, a snap suplex and a half crab finishes. This was brilliant but coming off the Funaki match, it’s clear this is levels below that. ***¾. Still an excellent contest though and Nakano is my sweaty, bleeding icon. I love him.  

 

Match #3: Kazuo Yamazaki vs. Yoji Anjo. We start out grapple-heavy and I just want someone to get punched in the face. I have been spoiled by Tatsuo Nakano. Anjo does throw some knees to the midsection but that’s hardly a substitute. Yamazaki is supposed to be a big star in this company, but he struggles to get going here and that’s the story of the match. He even lets Anjo out of a clear match-ending leglock for no real reason.  

 

With Yamazaki forced to use a rope break, Anjo taps him in the ribs with a kick on the break and Yamazaki’s whole mood switches. “Are you fucking with me? Are you fucking kidding? You little bitch. I’ll fucking end you!” Sadly, Yamazaki’s sauciness doesn’t last and it’s like he cannot be bothered with this guy. Anjo takes him down and Yamazaki just has this look on his face. Is it boredom? Anjo lariats him upside the head. “Wake up, you dopey bitch!” Yamazaki, again enraged, kicks the leg out from under Anjo’s leg and taps him out with a kneebar. If only Yamazaki maintained his intensity here. Anjo had to drag this match out of him. Still decent, to be fair. *** 

 

Match #4: Nobuhiko Takada vs. Masakatsu Funaki. Oh! These are arguably the best two wrestlers in the company. Takada has been sleepwalking through 1989, which sucks but if there’s someone who’ll kick him out of that funk it’s Funaki, who’s been golden all year and UWF’s best performer. Funaki is known for his kicking, but he has incredible hands. They’re so fast. Takada gets caught out by that and looks staggered quickly. Takada gets desperate and takes it to the mat where he’s less likely to get creamed. The strikes in this are fantastic and Takada is selling the hell out of how good Funaki is.  

 

As Takada eats his third down in quick succession the crowd get fired up! Funaki could win this and win it convincingly. If they’d gone that route, it would have been a star-making performance from him. I currently have him at #5 on my Wrestler of the Year list and I’m debating pushing him up even higher. Funaki has a bloodied nose in a nice throwback to the Nakano fight, which shows him as the underdog in this one. Its interesting to note that Funaki refuses to take a standing count and constantly keeps popping back up after each knockdown, whereas Takada, the veteran, takes his time.  

 

Funaki threatens to get a submission on Takada, who spends the whole match looking inferior to Funaki. It’s only his weight advantage that saves him most of the time. Funaki’s koppou kick is awesome and that’s the fourth down! Takada, desperate now to avoid a final down, starts getting more aggressive. He throws Funaki on the mat and beats him with a camel clutch, which looked like it hurt too. Top stuff here. Takada pushed to his limits by the upstart. Great, great wrestling. ****¼.  

 

Match #5: Akira Maeda vs. Yoshiaki Fujiwara. They’ve been building to this showdown. Fujiwara ploughed through Maeda’s undercard and beat Yamazaki last time out. Only Takada hasn’t fallen to him. So, now Maeda stands up to this veteran, coming for his crown as top dog in his own promotion. I’ve found Maeda somewhat tiresome this year so hopefully Fujiwara can humble him a bit. He certainly headbutts him in the face in the opening exchange! That’s how he beat Yamazaki. He’s skipped over the warmup and gone straight into the home runs.  

 

Fujiwara’s approach to stand up is to cower in the corner and not get knocked out. It’s worked so far. Maeda gets annoyed by it quickly. Fujiwara is in his head. The old rope-a-dope. Fujiwara does something cool and refuses to use a rope break to break a leglock. He’s all “nah, I can figure this out” and he ends up wrestling his way out of it. Maeda is fuming. Fujiwara’s mastery of Maeda’s own ruleset is beautiful to watch. The way he dodges a down by hanging onto the ropes as Maeda kicks his leg away is genius.  

 

Maeda resorts to getting on Fujiwara’s back and failing to get a choke. This goes on for AGES and kills the match. Maeda gets on the mat and demands Fuijwara follow him, channelling Inokism, and Fujiwara just kicks him because he’s not immobile and Maeda is an idiot. Fujiwara takes some leg kicks and he looks like he’s had enough. He doesn’t fight the downs anymore. He just drops and stays down. This happens three times in a row and Maeda wins on TKO. Fujiwara rolls out of the ring, sick of having to look at this narcissistic prick’s face. ***½. Fujiwara was wonderful here and there was huge money in having him win but instead Maeda won here and then every match for the rest of the year.  

 

Match #40 (August 27, 1989. UWA, Monterrey, Mexico) 

 

Two Out of Three Falls 

Mask vs. Mask 

Blue Demon vs. El Matematico  

Blue Demon is 67 years old here and this is the penultimate time he’s putting his mask up and effectively his retirement match. He did continue to wrestle after this but rarely. Blue Demon was one of the biggest stars in lucha, second only to El Santo at his peak. Matematico has numbers all over his mask. It’s a spectacularly crap gimmick that people just got used to. Like the Undertaker.  

 

There is some nice mat work here and I really like lucha mat work. There’s a feeling these two gentleman are eager to prove to the other who the best man is, and they can only do this with technical grappling. Demon quits on fall one, like a big coward, after getting outclassed. We go to fall #2! Comms have to stop off to explain who is who. Blue Demon is the one in blue, lads. I think everyone can suss that out. Blue Demon gets a standing figure four and Matematico quits. 1-1.  

The final and decisive fall sees Matematico heel it up a bit by going after the old man’s leg before undoing the old timer’s mask. What a jerk! If he’d pulled the mask off, wouldn’t get be disqualified and therefore have to unmask? He’s not thinking it through. Just pin the old fucker, he’s 67. It gets silly after that with the ref getting bumped after he tries to help Matematico. He’s chasticed for this, by the gaffer, and probably his weight issues while we’re about it. Matematico does hits a sick tope, but not on Blue Demon, who rolls back in and wins on count out. That’s cheap, man. Is that how you want to be remembered? This was certainly a laugh, and I enjoyed myself.  

 

Match #41 (August 29, 1989. AJPW Summer Action Series, Osaka, Japan) 

 

AJPW World Tag Team Championship 

Jumbo Tsuruta & Yoshiaki Yatsu (c) vs. Genichiro Tenryu & Toshiaki Kawada 

Kawada had already held the All Asia belts with Samon Fuyuji but this is “the big one” for tag teaming. He wouldn’t actually win these belts until 1991. This is Tsuruta & Yatsu’s first defence after beating Tenryu & Hansen for the straps in July. That match was ‘fine’ but not on a par with the other big tags in 1989 from AJPW.  

Jumbo and Tenryu start out with familiarity stuff, tinged with hatred. Tenryu’s chops are sensational, again. He litters the match with them, designed to slow his opponent down. Kawada’s role in this match is to be the weak point for Tenryu, because he’s not Stan Hansen, and he, like Kobashi in 1989, is great at fighting from the underdog stance. As soon as Jumbo comes near him Kawada looks as if he’s about to collapse. He’s out of his depth…but in a good way. He has to overcome and that’s a great story. 

 

Yatsu has the same distrust of Tenryu, the sneaky fucker, that Jumbo has and jumps in to stop him from interfering before its even happened. Back to Kawada, who’s suffering from injuries to his upper body, and that’s the target for Jumbo and Yatsu. The already weak link is even weaker. It’s most apparent when he tries to go after Yatsu on the floor and gets whipped into the rail. He was supposed to be helping Tenryu, the legal man, and he utterly fails.  

 

Jumbo starts to enforce his will on the match and dominate and in the process swats the referee away and the poor ref is bleeding from the nose. I love how the referee accepts it was accidental and just gets on with his job, bleeding in the process. Due to Jumbo’s incredible ring presence in 1989, Kawada gets big pops for getting anything on him. Jumbo’s method of selling for a lesser worker, which Kawada was at the time, is great too. He grimaces a bit but takes way less bumps and recovers from stuff quicker.  

 

The way everyone interacts in this is so cool and well designed. The finish is fantastic. Kawada goes up top but in comes Jumbo to stop him so Tenryu piles in and knocks him out of the ring. In doing so, Tenryu ends up in the ropes, which delays Kawada coming off the top. This gives Yatsu time to recover and he powerslams Kawada as he’s coming down. The thought process behind all that and how it ties into the characters and the match as a whole is just a thing of beauty. This was 23:00 and felt like a sprint. **** 

 

Match #42 (August 30, 1989*. WWF Prime Time Wrestling, Civic Center, Portland, Maine) 

*Broadcast September 18, 1989  

 

Widowmaker vs. Tito Santana 

Barry jumped to the WWF in 1989, in an almost forgotten run, where they dubbed him “The Widowmaker”. Which is a pretty cool nickname but he is already Barry Windham so that should be enough. Vince? I guess? They don’t even call him “The Widowmaker Barry Windham”, he’s just “The Widowmaker”. This is the only match he had in this WWF run that wasn’t a squash.  

The match is sluggish, and Windham looks a pale imitation of him in WCW. It’s mad that Windham was this stud, this main event star and then he wasn’t. His performance against Bam Bam Bigelow at Starrcade ‘88 was brilliant and now this? Maybe he thought he could get away with doing less in New York. Most people did. He’s certainly trying to get the character over rather than the work, although I don’t know what the character is supposed to be.  

 

Lord Alfred Hayes claims Windham is tired after about 8:00 and I’m like…I’ve seen him go an hour with Flair, with no rest holds. He’s not tired. As the match continues to slog along, it’s a reminder that the WWF’s in-ring action is nothing to be excited about. Tito hits the “Mexican Hammer”, the renamed Flying Forearm and the time limit expires. Every time I think about reviewing some Prime Time Wrestling, I’m reminded that even the “good” stuff sucks.  

 

Match #43 (September 22, 1989. EMLL Aniversario, Mexico City, Mexico) 

 

Two Out of Three Falls 

Mask & Hair vs. Mask & Hair 

Atlantis & El Satanico vs. MS-1 & Tierra Viento y Fuego 

This is only the third time Atlantis has put his mask up. He’s naturally 2-0 thus far. He would go on to win many masks (I tried to count but lucha history is so sketchy) including La Sombra and Ultimo Guerrero. Atlantis is a lovely clean worker and the best wrestler in the match by some distance. Everyone else looks passable but barely. If lucha is done badly, it quickly falls apart. After a sloppy opening fall, Atlantis is pinned by the rudos double teaming him. 

 

Tierra Viento y Fuego is the worst offender here. He’s dogshit. A clumsy, golden masked rudo who seems to have no control over his limbs. Every time he kicks someone, he throws both his hands into the air, like he’s dancing. He looks about half a second away from losing his balance all the time. El Satanico does a good job in this. He stinks of rudo but he plays technico and fights from underneath, through rivers of blood. While he’s holding Tierra at bay, Atlantis does a flippydo onto MS-1 to level the falls. 

 

I love how El Satanico almost fights Atlantis off when he comes to check on him. Thus, selling blood loss and how out of it he is. The third fall is a mixture of cutesy lucha stuff, big dives and bloodshed. MS-1 takes an awesome bump off a dropkick, through the ropes and is held in place for Atlantis hitting a tope, which is the most excited the crowd have gotten. Satanico and MS-1 provide the backbone for the match. There’s clearly a nice chunk of hate there. The finish is not satisfying because of that with Atlantis simply pinning the hapless Tierra and taking his mask. The announcer happily tells us this man is called Damian Guerrero.  

 

Match #44 (October 10, 1989. WWF on Sky One, London Docklands Arena, London, UK) 

 

Rockers vs. Fabulous Rougeaus 

I found this entire show online and I’m a little miffed I didn’t find it earlier, or I would have watched the whole thing. Hey, maybe that’s a good thing! The Rougeau’s mocking pro-American antics are not in play here, because nobody in England cares. Instead, they show off. Funny little story here; I wanted to go to the show in Birmingham the night after this but got told wrestling was stupid and a waste of money. Hey, correct on both counts, but we’re still here, baby! 

 

There’s a lot of ‘playing to the crowd’ stuff here. The Rockers running through their house show material. They do a lot of mirroring, where the Rockers do something, and Jacques can’t do the same spot and misses. Chortle, guffaw etc. I’d probably have eaten it up as a 13-year-old in attendance but on tape 34 years later? Less so. Most of the shenanigans involve the Rockers switching behind the referee’s back and Jacques failing to get a reverse hot tag. A cold tag?  

 

Then they run heat on Shawn and do all the same shit in reverse. How is this any different to what the Rockers just did? Pure hypocrisy from the Brits in attendance. The same is true of the finish with Jimmy Hart’s megaphone coming into play. Earl Hebner stops the Rougeau’s from using it and then Shawn whacks Jacques with it for the win. A lot of pantomime here and this really isn’t my kind of match. I can see why people would like it and it’s certainly an easy way to illicit a response from the rubes. The Rockers did a much better version of this match with the Brainbusters.  

 

WWF Championship  

Hulk Hogan (c) vs. Randy Savage  

This is from the same show, and I wanted to see what the reaction was like for Hogan. This is the first UK/European tour and something the WWF milked for money for years afterwards. Savage does a lot of time wasting in this. The standard of spot is Savage bailing, throwing a chair in, Hogan catches it and sits on it. Crowd cheers, etc. Savage even cuts a promo in mid-match calling Hogan slow and stupid and Sherri the “most beautiful woman to ever walk the earth” in a jab at Miss Elizabeth in Hogan’s corner. 

 

Sherri, in high heels, even puts the boots to Hogan in this. Hogan, hero that he is, doesn’t lower himself to assaulting a woman. I’m kidding, of course, he bounces her head off the ring apron. An added demandment; “it’s ok to punch a woman if she’s really annoying, brother”. “I’ve had enough of her, man” is a real quote as the Hulkster goes after Sherri again. Lord Alfred Hayes, incorrectly, states that it’s ok because Sherri is the WWF women’s champion. It’s Rockin’ Robin, not that anyone would know. The belt has been buried.  

 

They occasionally work hard here but not often. Most of the match is them working at half speed, knowing a starving UK crowd will eat up whatever they serve. The Flying Elbow is the Reviving Elbow here, as Hogan completely no sells it and just pops back up. Liz then belts Savage, which is surely a DQ and Hogan drops the leg to retain. Sherri did most of the work in this one. Another great performance from her.  

 

Match #46 (October 11, 1989. AJPW October Giant Series, Yokohama, Japan) 

 

Triple Crown Championship  

Genichiro Tenryu (c) vs. Jumbo Tsuruta  

This is the third singles match this year between these two and it’s happening for a reason. The reason being Tenryu’s impending departure. Something that would have seemed unthinkable just a few months earlier. Tenryu vs. Tsuruta had become the backbone of AJPW. I’ve tried to find out the timescale for when Tenryu told Baba he was leaving but the sudden nature of this title change suggests it was around this point. Six months later Tenryu would be gone. I’ll get to Super World of Sports when we go through 1990, but all the names involved have that “I wonder what happened to them” vibe as I’ve been going through this whole project. Yatsu, Takano, Fuyuki, Sano, Nagasaki. Joining Super World of Sports was (almost) career suicide.  

 

This is available, in full, from the original broadcast, on YouTube. Including the Jumbo-Hansen finish from where Jumbo won the belt. I’ve never seen it before, and Stan just misses a lariat and falls over and loses. It’s quite funny. That’s followed by clips from the previous two title matches these two have had. That June one is swank. More clips follow with Tenryu successfully defending against Yatsu and Gordy.  

 

From the bell this has a cracking intensity to it. Tenryu alternates between being smart, dodging the high knee, and trying to prove he’s Jumbo’s equal in tests of strength. Jumbo swats aside the Enzuigiri, showing he’s in no mood for Tenryu’s bullshit early on. There’s a fine line between dick measuring machismo and clever in-ring psychology. They both want to humiliate, not just beat, the other but also don’t want to expose themselves to defeat in the process.  

 

Unlike the June classic, Jumbo doesn’t put in an all-timer performance. There’s a lot of aimless mat work. Random chinlocks and armbars that don’t go anywhere. When compared to the June match, it’s a big step down. The crowd turn on Jumbo when he decides to go after Tenryu with a chair. Essentially making himself the monster heel that Tenryu must overcome and giving the match the same feel as Tenryu vs. Hansen.  

 

They then switch and have Tenryu work the midsection so Jumbo can fight from underneath. Tenryu gets painted as a wiley, savvy champion, who’s always one step ahead. A contrast to previous matches where Jumbo bullied him. Tenryu is obsessed with the powerbomb and tries it at every chance he gets. He knows that will beat Jumbo…if he can get it. Jumbo does get the Backdrop Driver, but Tenryu gets his foot on the rope. His ring positioning is again outstanding. Tenryu continues his powerbomb obsession but Jumbo counters it into a rana, into the pin and gets his belt back. Tenryu’s next title would come in 2000. So, this isn’t a great night for him. 

 

The match is clearly a step down from the June classic but almost anything would have been. Jumbo is calculating here rather than intense, and Tenryu was supposed to play a smart game as champion but failed because he was so obsessed with getting off that one move. ****. Some great psychology in this but the intensity was nowhere near the June match. Not even close.  

 

Match #47 (October 30, 1989. NWA Power Hour, Gainesville, Georgia) 

 

NWA United States Championship  

Lex Luger (c) vs. Dick Murdoch 

This was taped just after Halloween Havoc but aired just before Clash #9. Jim Ross sells this as rich pretty boy (Luger) against common man (Murdoch). Which is how the fans are reacting to it, so I reckon he’s spot on. I’ve said before that I think 1989 is Luger’s best year in the business. Luger’s heel work in this is to get outwrestled and bail to argue with the fans. It’s effective. Murdoch does fine work here in looking all googled eyed after taking a beating but coming back strong with big punches. Like a real man. He doesn’t go the fucking gym like Flexy Lexy, he goes to the BAR and works on them beer muscles. It’s funny that Luger is chastised throughout for cheating, but Dick keeps punching him in the face. Pretty sure those closed fists aren’t legal, Nick Patrick. Both guys shove Patrick over for the double DQ and nearly 18:00 is a long time for that finish. Were they really protecting Dick Murdoch from a job in 1989? What makes it even weirder is that Murdoch left the company a matter of days later. An intensely WCW experience this one.  

 

Match #48 (November 1, 1989. WWF Prime Time Wrestling: Survivor Series Showdown, Wichita, Kansas) 

 

Ultimate Warrior vs. Tully Blanchard 

What a weird match this is! It was done to sell the Heenan Family’s forthcoming Survivor Series match with Warrior’s team. It ended up being Tully’s last televised match in the WWF as he was fired for failing a drugs test a few days later. We’ll next see him working for AWA at Superclash IV. I am reviewing that show. Mark your diaries accordingly. Tully decides to make this a comedy match because he probably thinks WOYAH is a joke. When you’re wrestling a brainless cartoon, you might as well laugh about it. They build a nice contest by having peanut brain miss stuff. Warrior gets a powerslam dubbed “WHATTAMANOOVA” by Vince, which is what he says when he sees a move that he likes but doesn’t know the name of. Arn then runs in for the DQ and Woyah cleans them both out, just to demonstrate how badly the Heenan boys were treated. This was short, which is best where Warrior is concerned. I will miss Tully Blanchard. He was on such a tear and then…nothing.  

 

Match #49 (November 29, 1989. AJPW Real World Tag League N12, Sapporo, Japan) 

 

Abdullah the Butcher & Tiger Jeet Singh vs. British Bulldogs  

Another wacky pairing here, taking place during RWTL. Abby and Tiger are both deathmatch guys who like to terrorise the locals, so the Bulldogs are easily the babyface team. For Davey this is prep work for his return to the WWF, where he’ll be wrestling gigantic men. For Dynamite Kid, it’s a night off. Poor Tommy avoids bumps but bleeds all over the place from Abby biting him. As the year has gone on, Davey is looking bigger and bigger. Especially when compared to Tommy, who is getting smaller. The roids have taken hold of Davey’s soul. He’s still bumping around like a junior though, which is admirable of him, but he really doesn’t need to take those bumps anymore.  

 

Not for fucking Tiger Jeet Singh, one of the worst wrestlers, ever. Luckily Tiger doesn’t do many ‘moves’ and most of his offence is chokes and rest holds. DK dropkicks Davey on top of Abby for the win. Davey was head and shoulders above everyone else here and the need for him to go into singles was palpable. However, with hindsight, someone should have taken him under their wing. Some big star like Tsuruta or Savage or Flair. Teach him the business. Like Tommy taught him to tag.  

 

Genichiro Tenryu & Stan Hansen vs. Giant Baba & Rusher Kimura 

This is the same night, in the same tournament. Baba is older than dirt (he’s 51, but he looks much older) but he is massively respected and a huge star. The aim of the match is for Hansen and Tenryu to get over at Baba’s expense. Rusher is only 47 and is somewhat mobile (especially compared to Baba). That doesn’t stop Tenryu beating this guy like he owes him money. Baba is taken out pre-match and Rusher continues to get his ass kicked while Baba lies around getting treatment on the floor. Kimura is somewhat the worst for wear. This is like 5:00 in.  

He looks like he’s had a big night out in Birmingham, and someone glassed him in Digbeth outside a club. Baba returns to the apron and Tenryu strolls over and chops him. “Mind your own business, you old cunt!” Baba’s hot tag is a thing of beauty. He’s so ungainely. He’s all over the place. He looks like they’ve draped skin over an animatronic. Normally, I think Baba sucks but he’s mesmerising here. I can’t take my eyes off him. The moves he pulls out are usually familiar (his patented neckbreaker drop included) but the way he catches Hansen with a small package genuinely catches me by surprise. It was smooth! 

 

As we get near the end of this Baba has been taking a shoeing for ages. Kimura reappears but Hansen bats him off the apron. Baba is alone. Hansen does a lot of setting up but it’s Tenryu who delivers the kill shot. The powerbomb finishes with Baba landing on the back of his head. I imagine he didn’t take that move very often. It’s a HUGE rub to Tenryu. Not many people pinned Baba. Oh, shit, this match was fantastic. Two old guys battling to stay relevant and two assholes mercilessly beating them. **** 

 

Match #51 (December 6, 1989. AJPW Real World Tag League N18, Budokan Hall, Tokyo, Japan) 

 

AJPW World Tag Team Championship 

Jumbo Tsuruta & Yoshiaki Yatsu vs. Genichiro Tenryu & Stan Hansen 

Yatsu is out here in amateur headgear, a reminder of his Olympic past. He was in training for the 1988 Olympics but got banned because he was a professional athlete. Tenryu is on fine form here, fighting from underneath as the weaker of the two wrestlers, despite the Triple Crown run. A lot of his subtle blocks are employed. They switch with Yatsu being the underdog, after Stan rips his head gear off.  

 

Having the relatively meek Yatsu take abuse shifts focus away from the gangbusters Tenryu vs. Tsuruta feud. Jumbo left fuming on the apron, unable to affect the match. When Jumbo gets the hot tag business picks up! The way he bowls Hansen over with a high knee shows how peak Tsuruta was here. He’s like a wrecking ball. Hansen gets beaten up so badly that Tenryu has to come in and Jumbo fucks him up too. It takes a double team to stop him! Meanwhile, the seconds have mummified Yatsu, covering his entire dome in bandages.  

The story becomes Yatsu and whether he can even continue. Tenryu making a point of knocking him off the apron for laughs as Jumbo gets double teamed. Yatsu’s comeback is downright heroic. He goes after Hansen, bulldogs him on the floor, drawing blood and then tags in to continue the abuse. When Tenryu kicks Yatsu in the head to break up a pin Jumbo gives the kind of kicking you would normally associate with Stonecold Steve Austin. HE’S STOMPING A MUDHOLE IN HIM!  

 

Tenryu is key to Hansen’s comeback though, as he prevents another bulldog from the floor. He also clocks Yatsu blindside with the Enzuigiri, thus setting him up for the lariat. SHIN CHAMPIONS! Jumbo is left rueful, comtemplating getting a tag team partner with a functioning head. Across the ring, this is Tenryu’s last major win in All Japan. Something that sounds insane based on his recent Triple Crown run and pinning Baba. ***¾  

 

Match #52 (December 8, 1989. EMLL Juicio Final, Arena Mexico, Mexico City) 

 

Three Way Mask vs Mask 

All Star vs. El Hijo del Santo vs. Fuerza Guerrera 

This is a strange match, as it starts off as Santo vs Guerrera and each pairing will face each other. Whoever ends up with the worst round-robin record loses their mask. Essentially, if you go 0-2, your mask is gone. What happens if everyone wins once? I don’t know. Sudden death threeway? Guerrera beats El Hijo del Santo quickly with a submission. It looked innocuous. A camel clutch after Santo missed a senton.  

 

Next is All Star vs. Fuerza. All Star looks like a plucky babyface and Fuerza has a nice time punching him in the jaw. Fuerza does precious little else. He is a face-puncher. Fuerza gets a half crab, and All Star quits. What? Another innocuous finish. The crowd is dead silent. No reaction at all. Guerrera’s mask is safe.  

 

EHDS vs. All Star is now a mask vs mask match, straight up because they both lost. Honestly, I could have lived without the two previous bits of this match. Nothing interesting happened. Comms announce this is now three falls. Nobody makes wrestling needlessly complicated like the Mexicans. EHDS quits to a Surfboard for fall one. That only lasted a few minutes, and nothing really happened.  

 

Things pick up in the second fall. Both guys suddenly start taking KUHRAZY bumps. All Star takes the cake though by receiving a tope and selling it by bumping backwards into the third row AFTER contact. Not during. Afterwards. He just did that for a laugh. EHDS slaps him in the camel clutch and we’re going to the final fall. We get a replay of that bump, and you can’t even see where All Star landed, just his silver boots poking up from the masses.  

 

EHDS is a bit of a jerk about it, and he runs All Star face first into the ring post and goes right back to the camel clutch. The crowd let him have it. “YOUR DAD WAS BETTER!” “YOUR MASK IS TOO SHINY” “THOSE TIGHTS MAKE YOU LOOK STUPID!” He then sandbags All Star, and the result is an ugly half powerbomb that is fantastic. All Star is bleeding through his mask, but it hasn’t dulled his appetite for doing stupid dives. He cannot stop throwing himself over/through the ropes onto concrete. He lands harshly and lies there bleeding, and the referee counts him out. The crowd are HOT about it, and it looks as if a riot is about to break out. I was under the impression El Hijo del Santo was a babyface here, but they fucking loathe him. As for the match; it’s entirely pointless until the latter stages but boy, does it get HEATED when it does get going.  

 

Match #53 (December 9, 1989. AJW, Korakuen Hall, Tokyo, Japan) 

 

IWA World Championship 

Manami Toyota (c) vs. Toshiyo Yamada 

Yamada debuted in 1987 but started making an impact in 1989. Trained by Jaguar Yokota, if you’ve not heard of her, you’re about to be in for a good time. Then there’s Manami Toyota. Is Manami Toyota my favourite wrestler of all time? That’s a strong maybe, chief. Before Yamada has taken her robe off, Toyota goes and rearranges her midsection with knee strikes. She has to be forceably subdued! It’s like John Connor realising the Terminator has showed up but instead of hunting him to death, it’s just kicking his ass.  

 

Hybrid wrestling gets thrown around a lot but the yoshi stars of the 1980s were the forebearers of hybrid wrestling. There are elements of strongstyle, lucha libre and European mat wrestling present here. Especially the use of lucha style takeovers. A lot of this match is patterned after existing yoshi matches but there’s a sense that Toyota has another level to her. The match starts out on this lower tier, and they start doing things that scare me. There’s a sidewalk slam from Yamada, which starts almost vertical and Toyota bumps on her neck. It’s scary as hell.  

 

Then there’s the flexibility of Toyota, which is sensational. It allows Yamada to hook a half crab that looks genuinely painful and Toyota to sit in it and not rupture anything. You put me in the same hold and my quad is gone, baby. Ripped off the bone like prime rib. The whole match should serve as a lesson in the ‘keep working’ mentality. They don’t do rest holds. They do mat work, throws, holds, limb work but they don’t lie around in holds like so many Western stars were doing at the same time. 

 

What amazes me the most here is Toyota’s ability to do the ‘last gasp’ thing where she dodges a kick. The timing of it is years ahead of its time. They do look a bit soft on some spots. The dropkicks aren’t perfect and a lot of ‘flying contact’ moves look way off. They run a mat counters for near falls sequence and that’s a bit of a mess too. You can see where it’s raw and lacking. Crinkles that Toyota would iron out over time. There is a roll up into a German suplex in there, which isn’t a million miles off a Chaos Theory. 

 

I like that they don’t get spammy or spotty here. There are big moves but in between them they counter and block and don’t just go from one big suplex to another. It still feels like a struggle, as it has all match. Two massive positives here are the pacing, which builds, and the execution of big spots, which have snap on them. Yamada tries to tear Toyota’s leg off, but the time runs out at 30:00. It really didn’t feel like a half an hour long match. ***¾. If they’d nailed the execution on a lot of little transitional holds here, we’d be looking at a much higher score. It just needed tightening up. Everything else worked great.  

 

Match #54 (December 22, 1989. CWA Catch Cup N37, Stadthalle, Bremen, Germany) 

 

So, I guess it’s time we talk Europe. European wrestling had a place in the 1990s. It was there, bubbling away in the background. Maintaining and continuing a style of work that had been present in the British Isles for decades. While the overwhelming urge for European workers was to behave like their American counterparts, thankfully that wasn’t the only style of wrestling that occured. Here we drop in on the Catch Wrestling Association. The promotion of Otto Wanz, a former Austrian boxer who was born in Nazi Germany during World War II. Wanz was an amateur wrestler and bodybuilder who could tear telephone books in half. Arnold Schwarzenegger idolised Wanz and could easily have followed him into pro-wrestling had circumstances been different.  

 

Fit Finlay vs. Mile Zrno  

Zrno is billed from “Yugoslavia”. He’s Croatian. Finlay is Northen Irish and cornered by Princess Paula. You probably know him from WCW, but he worked the pre-show on that WWF show on Sky One that I touched on earlier. Fit is presented as a flawless mat worker, which he is. It’s beautiful to watch that European technique in action here. It’s so different to anything else. 

 

Orig Williams, on the call, starts bashing Ultimate Warrior (without naming him). Implying that he doesn’t know a wrist lock from a wristwatch (he doesn’t say that either). This is under the round system and Fit’s skill keeps him on top for most of it. Zrno has a smashmouth approach in his comebacks. Lots of All-American flash. A contrast to Dave’s technical skill. Zrno refuses to release on the ropes and gets a yellow card for it. Bring back yellow cards in wrestling!  

 

Fit lobs Zrno over the top and that gets him a yellow too. Princess Paula piles in there and it’s all happening! Fit’s bumps are great in this. He takes hip tosses like his life depends on it. He throws a flying knee to the jaw, which is perfect too. Beautifully done. The timing on that shit is elite. You see it a lot nowadays but for 1989 it’s the TITS. Fit punches the ring post near the finale, which is another cracking yet basic spot. The replay shows he actually punched it, which looked great. If you get a replay, in slo-mo, and it looks great you know it’s wonderful work. Finlay gets a Tombstone piledriver and that finishes it.  

 

This was tremendous. The technical work in it ruled, it had great fire from Zrno, and they did so many little things right. Well worth digging out. ***½  

 

CWA World Heavyweight Championship 

Bull Power (c) vs. Otto Wanz 

Here we go, match 55. We made it and, not only that, I did the exact number of matches I said I was going to do, which is completely wild. There’s no way that should have happened. I swear I didn’t go back and edit, either*. The CWA world title was something Wanz made up and ‘won’ in South Africa. Then he held it for a decade. Bull Power is Leon “Vader” White, who is on his second reign, having bested Wanz back in 1987 for a few months. This is not his final run with the strap! 

 

*Including failing to notice I’d watched “match #4” twice. So, technically this was 56 matches. A bonus.  

 

Otto is trying to win his fourth title here, which comms suggest has never happened before anywhere. Flair has 6-7 titles at this point, depending on your perspective, but whatever.  

Wanz is one of the all-time great territorial guys because he’s this big fat guy and he looks like nothing important but he’s a generational hero to the Germanic people. Battling the evil American invaders. They go the whole hog on this. Playing the anthems of both competitors before the German anthem.  

 

This is not a complicated match. It’s just two big fat guys hitting each other. I FUCKING LOVE THIS SHIT. Wanz is an awful technician and is in horrible condition so they’re limited in what they can do. Vader treats Wanz like a punchbag and he keeps keeling over sideways. Vader does way too much selling though. I guess it is Wanz’s promotion so you wouldn’t expect him to get totally bullied. I wish he was. Vader is so much better when he’s totally dominant and doesn’t have to sell at all. 

 

Vader scoop slams Wanz here and he’s well over 400lbs. That’s an impressive display of power. He also batters Wanz with forearms and punches. He’s so stiff. Vader’s intention seems to be that he’s going to split Wanz’s giant head open like a ripe melon. There are huge chunks of this match where Wanz gets knocked down, stands back up and is immediately knocked back down.  

 

Vader gets knocked out to the floor and they do a bladejob with Orig Williams standing over Vader so no one can see it. Wanz follows the motto of another Austrian hero; “if it bleeds, we can kill it”. The blood is coming from around his ear and Wanz starts punching him in the side of the head. At this point any semblance of a wrestling match is gone in favour of two guys just punching each other. My god, it’s glorious. Wanz manages to get a lariat together and Vader doesn’t answer the ten-count.  

 

90% of this match is two fat guys punching each other and it’s awesome. They end the show with a still of Wanz, all bloodied, while heroic music plays in the background. Ahhh, I love the wrestling. **** 

 

NEXT: 1989 Awards. Normally I put this together as one column but, as you can see, I’ve gotten a wee bit carried away. Thanks for reading, if you made it to the end of this, I’ll buy you a pint* 

 

*If I see you in person and you remind me, brrrrrrrrrrrrrother**.  

 

**Or sissssssssssssssster.