The Mop Up: January 1990  

 

Hello, as part of my new approach to reviewing wrestling year by year, I’ve decided to pick up the stuff that’s not on the big shows closer to when it happens. My previous approach was to simply pick up all the major matches at the close of the year on a big mop up/awards column. Until 1989 got completely out of hand. This is my fix for this issue. I’ll do a monthly mop up covering short shows (where I’ve barely got an hour of footage), big matches from promotions that full shows are not available from and maybe fancams and stuff. Things that I wouldn’t dedicate an entire review to. Hopefully this means I’ll get to cover more, rather than less, as some things don’t make the ‘year-end’ cut that I might consider getting to here.  

 

In my head it’s going to work like a concept where I get this tape through the post/mail and it reads “JANUARY 1990” on it. Nothing else. I stick the tape in, and this is what we get. Only it isn’t because it’s things I’ve collated from various sources. But if it was ‘back in the day’, it would definitely be a tape marked “JANUARY 1990”, and I wouldn’t know where half this shit came from! For those who haven’t followed my reviews to back in the late 90s; I used to review a lot of tapes from guys like Bob Barnett, who would comp stuff together and I’d inevitably get the dates wrong for matches, or sometimes think I was watching a different match entirely. Such was the lack of information back then. Mistakes were made, gentle reader, mistakes were made.  

 

ALL JAPAN TV (January 7, 1990) 

 

This was taped January 3, 1990, in Korakuen Hall. The card is frankly incredible. No spoilers here, let’s fucking gooooo. Shout out to Roy Lucier for the tape on this one. He’s uploaded an awesome archive of AJPW TV onto YouTube and is one of my heroes. 

 

Kenta Kobashi vs. Great Kabuki 

We are JIP, which means “joined in progress” for people who aren’t used to clipped up shows. Watching Kabuki wrestle for nearly 20 minutes isn’t my idea of fun so I’m glad of the edit, even if it costs us some Kobashi time. This is part of Kobashi’s “trial series”, which is a Japanese concept of throwing a young gun in with an assortment of experienced grapplers, to see how they cope. The first match was against Yatsu, yesterday, and this is #2. He would go on to face Randy Rose, Rip Rogers (!), Davey Boy Smith, JUMBO TSURUTA and Abdullah the Butcher.  

 

It was clear, very early in his career, that Kobashi was special. Not just for his in-ring smoothness and execution but for his connection to the crowd, his intensity and his fire. You’ll notice I’m not talking about the match much. Yeah. The best part of the match is when Kobashi slaps the Texas Cloverleaf on Kabuki, reminding him of his run for World Class in the mid 80s. “BENTAKNEESTYLE” adds comms. While Kobashi is a little rough, he’s already miles better than Kabuki. He still loses, via rolling prawn hold, but he showed Kabuki the business here. I would have put him over. Especially as Kabuki quits the promotion for SWS in a few months. Hindsight is 20-20, I guess. 

 

All Asia Tag Team Championship 

Footloose (Samson Fuyuki & Toshiaki Kawada) (c) vs. Fantastics  

If you’ve never experienced “Footloose”, Kawada’s secondary tag team when he wasn’t tagging with Tenryu, you’ve missed out. Obviously, they come out to “FOOTLOOSE”. Making Toshiaki Kawada the Kevin Bacon of All Japan. We should have done the Bacon Game with Kawada. The Fantastics headed out to AJPW in 1989 and stayed there for seven years, mainly on the undercard. I guess I’ll be seeing more of them in the 1990s than expected!  

 

Tommy Rogers has a Kawada number of #1. A whole bunch of ECW guys like Chris Chetti, Mikey Whipwreck, Jerry Lynn and the Dudleys have a Kawada number of #2. Rogers and Kawada do Tombstone reversals from rolling pins, which looks a lot like a bunch of sex acts. This match has elements of the better AJPW tags of the era. The Fantastics are rather dragged into this than instigating it. Given their usual approach is to work as babyfaces and get heat on them, this isn’t a traditional Fantastics match at all. Tommy Rogers is out here taking everything Kawada has though, and he takes the German suplex pinfall. This was pretty good! ***¼ 

 

Tommy Rogers is a massively underrated pro-wrestler. No wonder ECW had him in the background, teaching their useless midcarders how to wrestle. If only he had a personality, he could have easily gotten a Bobby Eaton style push in WCW or WWF.  

 

Tiger Mask II & Masanobu Fuchi vs. British Bulldogs 

You would think this was a dream match with Misawa opposing the Bulldogs, but he rarely ever seems to give a shit when wrestling Westerners. The sooner he fucking unmasks the better. Davey roughing Fuchi up here seems totally unfair. Fuchi is already old and feeble, and Davey is peak roids Bulldog. It’s just mean.  

This is the final tour of the British Bulldogs, by the way, with Davey continuing into the middle of year on a tour that Tommy missed with injuries. By the time Dynamite returns in September, Davey is back in the Fed. Dynamite wins with a diving headbutt on Fuchi, Misawa comes in to save and Davey just looks at him to stop him. Man, he didn’t give a fuuuuuck here. It’s pretty sad to watch all round. Get that fucking mask off him NOW.  

 

Ivan Koloff vs. Genichiro Tenryu 

Isao Takagi (Arashi) jumps Tenryu on his way to the ring. Which sets up a minor feud between the two in January, but Takagi would jump to SWS so no real benefit for All Japan here. When All Japan signed Ivan for this tour, I don’t think they realised how finished he was. In his late 40s, his movement around the ring has become laboured. I think Ivan is an underrated worker but not at this point. Sadly, Tenryu treats him like a conquering hero instead of the old man he is. Tenryu’s attitude to older wrestlers is so bizarre. He has unlimited respect for old men but anyone a day younger than him? Like dogshit.  

 

You know No Country for Old Men? That’s not Japan. They fucking love old men. At least Tenryu lays in a few chops and the match would benefit from more, both ways. Tenryu puts a few moves on Koloff, and he lies down for the big back elbow drop. Ivan looked so tired here. I feel bad for him. Maybe he was jetlagged?  

 

FMW BATTLE RESISTANCE FIRST OPEN TOURNAMENT (January 7, 1990) 

 

This is also in Korakuen Hall. It’s supposed to be a Mixed Martial Arts tournament. UFC are credited with the creation of the term in 1993 but here we are. Onita wanted to showcase different martial arts battling each other. He thought it would make for an interesting show. So, this is what UFC #1 would have looked like if it wasn’t on the level. 

 

ROUND ONE: 

 

Masanobu Kurisu vs. Jang Yong Wow 

Yes, JANG YONG WOW. He’s dressed in a full gi. Kurisu is a surly old fucker who doesn’t care for young people. Wow is a black belt in something. Attempting head kicks by the looks of it. Kurisu catches one of his kicks and he looks confused. “Is this the rules? I cannot kick?” He has the look of man who didn’t realise any of this would happen. Kurisu then headbutts him, throws him out of the ring and HITS HIM IN THE HEAD WITH A CHAIR. Welcome to pro-wrestling, kid. Winner: Kurisu, via death.  

 

Katsuji Ueda vs. Mitsuhiro Matsunaga 

Ueda is a kickboxer who comes in wearing boxing gloves and immediately looks out of his depth. He has the kind of haircut you could set your watch by. Wrestling will eat him alive. Matsunaga kicks him square in the jaw. Ueda responds with a shot to the plums and is disqualified. The bloodthirsty crowd boo this outcome. Winner: Matsunaga, via being punched in the bollocks. 

 

Lee Gak Soo vs. Sambo Asako 

Soo, a Korean, has a background in assorted martial arts including taekwondo, kick boxing and hapkido. You’ll never guess what discipline SAMBO Asako trained in? In fairness, he’s introduced here as Fumihiro Asako. Lee Gak Soo has that 90s Korean haircut that looks like lego.  

Tell me I’m wrong? He just clicks that thing off at night, pops it on his bedside table and sleeps bareheaded. Asako is chubby, which is my favourite kind of babyface. Soo kicks the fuck out of Asako, so the big man smothers him. Soo’s insistence at kicking the poor fat man and making Bruce Lee noises makes me want him ended ASAP. He’s a total asshole. His Bruce Lee bullshit continues, and he takes the ref out too. He celebrates like he’s won but he’s clearly been disqualified. The crowd don’t like this either but it’s the right outcome. Maybe they just like Bruce Lee. This was GREAT btw, and I want a rematch. *** Winner: Asako, via sympathy.  

 

Sidenote: how did this kid (Soo) not become a HUGE star? He did a bunch of stuff for FMW in 1990 and that’s about it. Pretending to be Bruce Lee and doing fancy kicks was a recipe to print money. I want him in UWF just on this one match. Even if it’s just him doing stupid kicks and getting annihilated by Takada. Pure box office gold.  

 

Satoshi Imaizumi vs. Tarzan Goto 

The only thing I can find about gi wearing Imaizumi is that he, or his namesake, is he is now dean of faculty welfare in Hiroshima. It MAY be a different guy.  

That said, he does look like a college professor. Maybe he just did some judo on the side? At the end of the day, it doesn’t really matter as Goto just beats him up for a few minutes with clubbing blows. Imaizumi does the same throw twice, that’s his entire offence, and you can hear people yelling “do it again” or words to that effect as Goto blocks it three times. Goto then chokes him unconscious. Winner: Goto, via afternoon nap. 

 

Atsushi Onita vs. The Shooter 

Oh no, not the dreaded SHOOTER. It’s just a guy in a mask. It’s not Jack Victory. The Shooter declines to be interviewed, as he doesn’t want to give anything away. He’s so mysterious. I’m expecting him to be complete shit, but he proceeds to kick Onita out of the ring. Maybe he’s just an ace shooter who didn’t want people to know he was wrestling? Poor Shooter takes the second unprotected chair shot of the evening. Now not only does the crowd not know who he is, he doesn’t know himself. Does FMW have a concussion protocol? I’m guessing not as Shooter slips over and gets powerbombed. Winner: Onita, via CTE.  

 

SECOND ROUND 

 

Yes, there were five matches in round 1, thanks for counting along with me. Confusingly there are three matches in round 2. I don’t make the rules here. There are no rules here.  

 

Tarzan Goto vs. Sambo Asako 

Two actual pro wrestlers clash in this bout. The result is lots of mat grappling. Until Goto tries to beat Asako on the ropes and gets judo thrown to the floor. Sorry, sambo thrown! The crowd have started mimicking Asako’s “ARRRGH” when he gets hit, which is tremendous fun. Asako is one of those wonderfully crap workers. Where it’s clear he’s not having elite tier matches but his character is so strong that it doesn’t matter in the slightest. Goto headbutts him for the win. Winner: Goto, via trauma. AAAARGH.  

 

Atsushi Onita vs. Beast the Barbarian 

Who the fuck is this guy? According to Cagematch it’s Randy Neverman. One time WWF jobber, turned FMW jobber. His gimmick is somewhere between a caveman and Hercules. He’s an odd choice for the tournament as his martial art appears to be whatever ‘martial art’ cavemen practiced. Cave fu? Mammoth Stance? Neverman pops everyone in attendance by hitting a fan with a chair. I assume it was a plant, but it was still very funny. The beating on the floor continues until the referee gives up and rings the bell. Winner: Onita, via common sense. 

 

Post Match: a tearful Onita is all “one more, one more”.  

 

Oh no, they restart it??? Fuck. I was happy with that outcome. They continue the brawl with Onita now getting more of it. More than zero. Onita sees this as a challenge and tries to make Neverman look like a worker. Or make this look like a shoot? I do know that this is unclipped despite being the longest match on the show AND Beast kicks out of Onita’s finisher. Onita hits it again to advance. Winner, again: Onita, via egotism.  

 

Masanobu Kurisu vs. Mitsuhiro Matsunaga 

Matsunaga works over Kurisu’s leg, and he looks very upset because he needs that to walk to the pub later. How upset? He stomps Matsunaga’s face into the mat. Kurisu is one of the surliest surly workers of the early 90s. He looks unreasonably mad about anything, and YOU SHOULD KNOW BETTER THAN TO PISS HIM OFF. Matsunaga continues to upset him despite repeated warnings and Kurisu breaks four chairs over his back. Winner: Kurisu, via chiropractic methods. This was, naturally, fantastic.  

 

SEMI-FINAL 

 

I’m assuming they drew lots to see who had to wrestle again? Or something? Because Kurisu is now in the final.  

 

Atsushi Onita vs. Tarzan Goto 

Goto spends the match trying to break Onita’s arm and Onita spends the match trying to get cheeky roll ups. Which is not really what I was expecting! Goto gets a lengthy armbar and Onita eventually just quits. Huh. Winner: Goto, via breaking someone’s fucking arm.  

 

FINAL 

 

Tarzan Goto vs. Masanobu Kurisu 

As the match starts I add Kurisu to my “wrestler of the year” shortlist. He demonstrates why immediately by bumping the opening punch like a sniper shot and then proceeding to break a chair over Goto’s back. It’s a good job they don’t do DQs in this company! Unless someone gets punched in the balls, naturally. That’s just not cricket, old chap. Kurisu makes a point of adding in psychology to proceedings by actually working the taped ribs of Goto, rather than just randomly whacking him with furniture. He is beating him like a government mule.  

 

There’s an assortment of headbutts (to the ribs), chops (to the ribs) and crabs (applied to damage to ribs). Afterwards he’ll be taking Goto to Abby’s House of Ribs, where he’ll beat him in the ribs with some ribs. Just to prove the point. This is a shellacking. There’s no other word for it. Kurisu stops short of tearing the tape off, and maybe that’s where it goes wrong for him. Oh no, shit, he wins! Winner: Kurisu, via destruction of intercostal cartilage.  

 

A fucking awesome main event. Kurisu just picked Goto apart and wrecked his ribcage. It was a beautiful display of pro-wrestling. No comeback. Fuck that shit. ***¼ 

 

Post Match: Onita comes out here to argue with Kurisu. IT ENDS BADLY FOR HIM. Kurisu breaks the trophy over his head and leaves him face down on the floor, bleeding and with a broken arm.  

Behold! The greatest man in pro wrestling. Old, balding, fat, TAKES NO SHIT. KURISUUUUUUUUUUUU!  

 

AJPW TV (January 14, 1990) 

 

This was taped on January 11, 1990, in Aichi.  

 

British Bulldogs vs. Akira Taue & Isao Takagi 

A first sighting of Taue, although it’s Takagi that’s causing waves. He just attacked Tenryu. It’s a little surprising he’s not opposite him tonight. I’ve only really seen Takagi when he’s older, as Arashi, and I thought he sucked. It’s nice to get that confirmed here. He was bad when he was younger too. Davey seems to have lost all motivation. It’s almost like he knows the team is finished. DK finishes with the diving headbutt and I wish he’d stop doing that. This was not good and mostly Davey and Takagi going through the motions. A house show performance. 

 

Abdullah the Butcher & Ivan Koloff vs. Yoshiaki Yatsu & Shunji Takano 

I’ll take “wrestlers who are about to jump to SWS” for $30. Shunji is 6’7” and you’ve probably never heard of him. That about sums his career up. Yatsu is left in there to deal with two old, immobile westerners, on his own. It’s not good. Yatsu working his ass clean off should be rewarded with a pin, imo, but it’s not to be. I know Abby is a big figure in Japan, but you’ll never convince me he should have kept going as long as he did. Fair play to him though, he made some serious bank as a travelling attraction. The big freak.  

 

Jumbo Tsuruta, Great Kabuki & Tiger Mask II vs. Genichiro Tenryu, Samson Fuyuki & Toshiaki Kawada 

The difference in Misawa between this and the last show is palpable. His timing and his spot work with Kawada is near flawless. A huge contrast to the Bulldogs stuff. I don’t get why he just couldn’t click with anyone else but when he wrestled his mates Misawa was unreal. He mainly works with Footloose here but when he’s in with Tenryu, he fucking leathers him with a roundhouse.  

 

The Jumbo-Tenryu feud is still a thing in early 1990 but it’s not the same. Jumbo has reinforced his will as the top guy. The way he treats Kawada in this is delightful (like a complete bitch). Tsuruta knows he needs to come across as unbeatable. As the top dog. So, when someone needs to beat him, that guy will be getting “the rub” in full. If I was an AJPW fan in early 1990, and knew Tenryu was leaving, I would not have picked Misawa as the guy who would save the company.  

 

The fierce approach of Kawada vs. Misawa is reminiscent of the Jumbo-Tenryu feud. Kawada seems to force that too, while Misawa is cuter with his offence. The match has a few creative breakdown sequences but they’re not as creative and violent as they would get as the year progressed. There’s one at the finish where Jumbo deliberately takes his fight to Tenryu on the floor to leave Misawa one on one with an injured Fuyuki. Tiger Driver finishes. ***½  

 

UWF WITH ‘90 FIRST (January 16, 1990) 

 

This is in Budokan Hall. Once again shout out to JC Satire over on YouTube for uploading all these. The equivalent of finding a reliable tape trader for UWF back in 1996. Heart emojis galore!  

 

Kevin Kastelle vs. Shigeo Miyato 

I didn’t find information on Kastelle on Cagematch but he is on Linkin as a Tae Kwon Do instructor. Kastelle’s approach to wrestling is MASSIVE ROUNDHOUSES and using height superiority. He looks like he’s never seen wrestling, let alone participated in it. The whole match is kick sparring. It’s like watching Tugboat, only with a lot more leg kicks. That’s unfair. Kastelle is more like Kevin Nash, with more leg kicks, and a lack of confidence.  

 

Kastelle rattles Miyato with his size and power. The kicks leads to knees in close quarters but Kastelle has no kill shot. He manages a suplex but then looks lost when they’re on the mat. Miyato then starts CHOPPING DOWN THAT BIG OL’ OAK. Half of one crab finishes and little Shiggy gets his win over a shooter. Fair play to him. This was a fun big man vs little man match up.  

 

Minoru Suzuki vs. Wellington Wilkins Jr 

Wilkins Jr had been a WWF jobber before this. This match is the first of many on Japanese territory as he became a regular for Michinoku Pro. It’s so weird seeing MiSu get bullied on the mat by him. That doesn’t last and Suzuki asserts himself there eventually. This match, in contrast to the last, is almost entirely on the mat. There is a lot of grapplefuckery. Wilkins soon discovers he’s out of his depth and goes into the ropes. I do like the rope break rule, as it allows a superior mat wrestler to wear their opponent down.  

To add insult to injury, Suzuki then racks up three knock downs too. It’s a masterful display from the young shooter. The brutal half crab that finshes is pure Suzuki. You can see it above. Suzuki was gold here. Probably his best pure wrestling performance so far. ***¼  

 

Yoshiaki Fujiwara vs. Tatsuo Nakano 

Nakano, my favourite underdog pudgster, is really out of his depth here. He tries his little heart out and is super aggressive as Fujiwara slowly figures him out. There’s so much lovely little wrestling countering in this. Nakano accidentally leaving an arm around Fujiwara’s waist and getting countered into the famous armbar, only to gut his way out of it. It’s a heroic, determined performance from Nakano. You sense he’s burning through far more energy than Fujiwara in the process though. 

 

Nakano gets caught in a heel hook and HEADBUTTS HIS WAY OUT. I’m not convinced he’s not done serious damage to both guys there. They get stood back up and Fujiwara headbutts Nakano back down. OH SHIT, IT IS ON HERE. Fujiwara is no longer playing. The headbutts continue as Nakano uses them defensively and Suzuki uses them on offence. Nakano then unleahes this insane flurry of strikes and he’s got this won! It’s like when Ultra Magnus eventually fired up on Galvatron and he’s like “wait, I’M WINNING” and then doesn’t finish it.  

Nakano is such a ballsy underdog. He gets a thrashing here and is often left on one knee, holding onto to his liver to make sure it’s not falling out. Predictably, blood is soon flowing from his nose. Something that happens in every Nakano match. Fujiwara decides to make it look more legit by headbutting Nakano in the face. Please, he’s suffered enough. Fujiwara gets fed up and taps Nakano out with a heel hook. He did this earlier in the match to soften it up. ****. Honestly, Nakano might be the best wrestler I’d never heard of before this flashback challenge series. He’s so chubby and underskilled, I cheer for him every time. The finish in this was made so much better by the use of a tap out. I believe it’s the first one I’ve ever seen.  

 

Kazuo Yamazaki vs. Yoji Anjo 

We’re back to the mat here as some bati bati occurs. Anjo is a spirited fella and switches from arm to leg trying to get a tap out. Anjo is aggressive and fiery here, like he realises this is a winnable contest, in theory. Both guys are below the top tier workers and realistically either could win. Yamazaki is higher up the totem pole, which gives Anjo that extra motivation.  

 

There’s a genuine buzz of excitement every time Anjo takes Yamazaki’s leg and looks to submit him. Yamazaki is really sluggish in response, until he suddenly bursts into life and just kicks the fuck out of Anjo. It occurs to me, Yamazaki may have been sleepwalking through the match up to that point and a kneebar woke him up. Both guys make a genuine attempt to kick the ever living shit out each other. Yamazaki launches into a series of headbutts and starts barking LIKE A DOG.  

 

Honestly, Anjo mate, at this point I would be leaving. Instead, he tries for a flying knee. Yamazaki, still snarling like a wild animal, tries to choke Anjo out. He doesn’t quite suceed as Anjo, who looks legitimately fucked, taps out. Replays show a still of the knee to the face that woke Yamazaki up. A reminder to everyone not to knee Yamazaki in the face. ***¾. Glorious.  

 

Akira Maeda vs. Nobuhiko Takada 

This series feels like it’s lost all the steam it had when they did a match to demonstrate the new rules of UWF. My 1988 MOTY. This is now their fifth singles match in UWF and the first of three this year. A sign the promotion was, perhaps, running out of steam. They do tell a good story, with Takada starting HARD and knocking Maeda down immediately. The match lacks the urgency of the others on the card. It’s two heavyweights circling, like in a boring boxing match.  

 

Since UWF opened, the style of Maeda and Takada has been embraced by the public and the community but they themselves have both regressed. Maeda’s regression seems to be ego based. Takada, meanwhile, just doesn’t look interested anymore. Due to the eventual implosion of the promotion, there has to be something going on behind the scenes here. This match only gets interesting occasionally as Takada wakes up and forces something. The rest of it is fucking tedious. It’s sad to watch two great wrestlers with this incredible vision for wrestling deteriorate into this. 

 

There’s a sequence where Takada starts kicking Maeda and Maeda just lies there and takes it, like a bitch. What is he doing? They then have a sequence where Takada is trying to escape a half crab and Maeda just falls off, Takada wastes a rope break on it anyway. Takada then scores a down by poking Maeda in the eye. On the restart Takada goes after Maeda’s ankle like a motherfucker and gets the tap out to rapturous applause. It would be Maeda’s final UWF job.  

This was occasionally well thought out but seriously below the standard of the promotion, especially involving both of them. The tremendous visual at the finish, of Maeda tapping out HARD, almost pushes it up to three stars but not quite. Maeda’s next job would come in his own promotion, RINGS, in August 1991.  

 

AND NOW, SOME RANDOM SINGLES MATCHES 

 

January 12, 1990 

 

Mexican National Championship 

Mogur (c) vs. Pierroth Jr 

This comes from EMLL’s Super Viernes program. I’ve never seen Mogur before but he’s clearly the technico as Mascarita Sagrada is in his corner. Mogur is maskless, having dropped the mask to Mascara Ano 2000 a few years ago. My only previous experience of Pierroth was when he had a guest spot in the 1997 Royal Rumble. That, very short, period where Vince experimented with lucha libre. I have seen, with my own eyes, Pierroth & Cibernetico beat the New Rockers (Marty Jannetty and Al Snow, no; it didn’t work).  

 

This match has a lot of arm ringers. Way more arm ringers than should be in a match. Pierroth has stupid ideas, like this thing where he holds both of Mogur’s ankles and then stretches the groin out, but he does it by lying on the mat, where he has no leverage. They start doing Tombstone reversals, into armdrags, and I have to tell you…my heart is not in this match. Mogur hits a Tiger Driver for the first fall to NO REACTION WHATSOEVER. What am I watching here? 

 

Fall two kicks off and Mogur starts assaulting Pierroth external occipital protuberance with his cock and balls. I’m certain that would not hurt Pierroth in the slightest but here we are. Pierroth returns to the groin stretch but this time from behind, so he can headbutt Mogur in the buttocks when he tries to get out. This is a comedy match isn’t it? Pierroth gets a submission, and we head into the final. Once again ZERO REACTION on the fall.  

 

The work starts to get really sloppy here with Pierroth barely paying attention to dropkicks he’s being hit with. Pierroth takes an ugly bump out of the ring and Mogur full on botches the tope by snagging the rope. Man, this is rough. When lucha is bad, it’s the worst wrestling on the planet. The only good thing about the match is the arm work, early on, pays off because Pierroth can’t get holds because of his bad arm. The finish, when it finally comes, is as awful as the rest of the match. An electric chair drop, no bridge. Mogur trying to kick out the whole time. Once again there’s no reaction, which is completely justified because this match fucking sucked. -* 

 

January 17, 1990 

 

Cactus Jack Manson vs. Steve Williams 

This is from NWA World Championship Wrestling, broadcast on TBS. Doc is about to leave WCW and go to AJPW for the bulk of his career. This is one of his final televised bouts for WCW before bowing out at the Clash in February. Foley made his WCW debut in November 1989, getting murdered by the Steiners. Management thought he looked good enough to use regularly and signed him up. He’s still ‘enhancement’ at this point, which means Doc doesn’t bother selling for him.  

 

Foley however, has an idea of how to make himself noticed. He takes a bump over the guardrail, which has me WHOOPING. My reaction is so loud my wife comes in from the other room and asks what happened, and I have to rewind it to show her. JR runs through Mick’s gimmick, which was turning on his tag team partners. It’s pretty clear, from commentary, that Ross likes Foley. Doc feels unmotivated and spends a lot of the match in rest holds. His refusal to bump a clothesline on the floor is PALPABLE. Oklahoma Stampede finishes after an ugly miss spot in the corner. That bump over the rail though. Wooo-eee. 

 

January 23, 1990 

 

NWA World Championship 

Ric Flair (c) vs. Z-Man 

Yep, they gave Tom Zenk a world title shot on NWA Power Hour. This is a prime example of how great Flair was at making middling wrestlers look like stars. Flair, and the Horsemen, are still babyfaces but not for long. “I wouldn’t go to Corpus Christi, there’s too many Mexicans there” – Jim Cornette. That’s not great, Jim. “Why did 10,000 Mexicans attack the Alamo? They only had one pick-up truck”. Jesus. 1990, where you could be openly racist on national television with zero repercussions.  

 

Flair runs through the motions here, which does include highs like a shoving contest. It’s one of the most interesting Zenk singles matches I’ve ever seen. Although that’s a low bar. All his boring, middling offence is sold like crazy by Slick Ric. You can see Flair pushing Zenk to do better. The slaps, the shoves, the chops. He’s pushing this kid.  

Jan9 

At ringside Woman arrives, along with Nitron, to watch. She would become involved with the Horsemen after they turned heel. Was Flair’s horniness directly responsible for his heel turn? Watching the near falls is weird. They look good but the crowd don’t react because no one, in the entire world, thinks “The Z-Man” Tom Zenk is going to win a world title. Flair wins with a handful of tights, suggesting he’s sliding back to the dark side. Crowd don’t care. This was good. Zenk had a handful of passable matches in his entire career. This is one of them. *** 

 

January 31, 1990 

 

IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship  

Naoki Sano (c) vs. Jushin Liger 

Liger had a bunch of great matches in early 1990 but I can’t find them anywhere because New Japan had them wiped off the internet, the fucking losers. Not even WWE is that copyright conscious. Let people watch random matches from the early 1990s, who cares if it’s your IP? Nobody is paying for it. Nobody gets New Japan World for classic shows (apart from me, I guess).  

 

Liger brings an assortment of cool stuff here and Sano repeatedly punches him in the face. It’s interesting to note that Liger came back, after losing the belt to Sano, with a fresh new look. One that would become “classic Liger”. Sano doesn’t care and rips his mask up. It’s mad that Sano, at the peak of his powers, jumped to the newly formed SWS and never got another shot like this one.  

 

Liger’s mask is a mess in this, and he blades too. It gives him this heroic hill to climb, as the superhero underdog. If you weren’t around in 1990, it’s hard to explain how Liger changed things but the style of wrestling you see (basically everywhere) goes back to how Liger worked. Add in a great gimmick and you’ve got an all-timer. Liger was also great at selling and making people believe he was finished in matches. He added to that with clever booking later in his career, where he’s sold the shit out of injuries and lost multiple matches because of them.  

 

Here he’s just overcoming some bloodshed but the way he does it is spectacular. His CRAZY OUTTA CONTROL TOPE in this match just fucking rules. It’s so good. It’s a combination of technique and the sheer speed it’s done at. That goes with almost everything Liger does. It’s so technically bang on but it’s so fast too! Modern fans might struggle to see why this was so rare, because everyone works like this now, but it was revolutionary.  

 

Liger takes such clean bumps too. The German suplex in this match is clean as fuck. Credit to Sano for some of it, I guess, but Liger does all the hard work in this. It’s interesting that comms call him Keichi Yamada during the match because you can see his face. Liger throws in some more cool shit, like countering a superplex in mid-air. Or a backdrop driver in mid-air. The way he switched his weight was radical. It’s both smooth and creates awkward looking landings, which is deliberate.  

 

We need to talk about the finish. SHOOTING STAR PRESS. I’m assuming this isn’t the first time he’s used it but it’s the first time I’ve seen him use it, in this flashback series, and it is SICK. How do you even think that up? Anyway, it rules. The match rules. It’s possibly 1990 MOTY. ****½  

 

I am clearly not going to do better than that in January 1990, so we’ll call it quits here.  

 

NEXT: NWA Clash of the Champions X: Texas Shootout!