March 1991

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Two beefy meatheads clobber at each other for a bit. Bulldog has bulked up big time since we last saw him at a Wrestlemania. He sacrifices a great deal of speed for his added mass. This wasn't pretty, with the exception of some surprising high spots, including a beautiful powerslam from Warlord and a Bulldog standing dropkick that gets a lot of height. Bulldog refuses to tap to Warlord's finishing Full Nelson submission, and is able to escape and landing a running powerslam to score a win to a monster pop. This was a bowling shoe ugly battle of powerhouses, but the crowd dug every second of this. ★★½

This is a depressing sight. Demolition are on their way out, with Ax out of the picture and replaced with Crush. Tenryu & Kitao are here as the WWF had a partnership with the short-lived SWS Japanese promotion. A large portion of the crowd are stretching their legs and the remaining fans sit on their hands, all whilst Bobby Heenan makes racist jokes about the Japanese wrestlers smelling like soy sauce. I'm sure these four could have a fun match in front of a hot Korakuen Hall, but this was just forgettable. The Japanese team pick up a win to zero reaction. It's a crying shame that Tenryu's biggest WWF match is pure filler designed to give the fans a break after the Sa…

Dino continues to stink up the undercard of Wrestlemania, although this would be his last appearance thankfully. Texas Tornado looks like slimmed down and quicker version of the Ultimate Warrior. This was a simple squash for Tornado, but neither man looked good in this. Bravo looks like shit and works like shit, and Tornado looked so wooden and awkward in there. This is over once Von Erich kicks out from Bravo's side suplex and Bravo is pinned after Tornado lands his discus punch. Pointless not-so-fun fact: both guys would die within weeks of each in early 1993 from gunshot wounds. ½★

Of all the filler we got on this show, this was by far the most pointless. Valentine is now face, has entrance music and works at a much quicker pace than he ever did during the entirety of his heel run. He strikes away at 'Quake until he falls down like a big redwood. The crowd pop for this and even get behind Valentine. Earthquake scores a quick win after an elbow drop and a Earthquake splash. Earthquake's single run was coming to end and Valentine is far beyond washed up at this point, so this match helped no one and was a massive waste of time. ½★

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Not much to say here. Legion Of Doom squash Power and Glory in seconds. Hercules takes the Doomsday Device and that's all she wrote. A super easy payday for Paul Roma, as he gets shoved out of the ring as soon as the bell rings. Hawk and Animal debuted for the company in the summer of 1990 and were being booked incredibly strong, so it made sense for them to steamroll right through their opponents. ½★

Perfect's selling here got a bit too silly for my tastes. He flips inside out from a Bossman punch and it reminded me of when Shawn Michaels tried to sabotage his match with Hogan by flopping all over the place. After Heenan and Perfect bend the rules, a haggard looking Andre The Giant comes down to even the odds. After Bossman looks like he has this won, Haku and Barbarian rush the ring and cause the disqualification. Bossman and Andre stand tall after the heels are fought off. Even with the naff non-finish, this was a fun, overbooked match with a molten-hot crowd. ★★¾

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As far as monster squashes go, this worked exceptionally well. Even here, it's clear that the Undertaker has an unique aura about him, with the kids at ringside looking in complete awe of him. He's in pure, no-selling Michael Myers mode and makes quick work of Snuka after catching him coming into the ring from a springboard attack. A tombstone later and Undertaker has scored his first of many Wrestlemania victories. I'm sure this was initially booked as yet another filler match, but the added historical significance stops this from being a complete waste of time. ★★

Not crap because of the wrestlers involved, just crap because of the length and the lack of content. Santana lands his flying forearm, only for Mountie to roll out of the ring. Jimmy Hart then gives Mountie his cattle prod and Mountie cheats to get the deciding pinfall. All done and dusted in 81 seconds. Poor Tito. DUD

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JIP to some slightly random back and forth move exchanges before Hansen & Spivey get things on track with some quality armwork on Misawa. Of course, this never ends up being important, and I'm starting to wonder why people started about these female wrestlers and juniors not selling properly when these all time greats here also did it all the time. Fun finish with Kobashi getting all excited only to eat a lariat to the mouth, but the highlight was clearly Hansen & Spivey dropping elbows.

Just another night in All Japan Pro Wrestlings greatest period. Taue and Kawada are OBSESSED with beating the hell out of eachother and it's awesome! Kikuchi takes a beating! Grass is green! This is probably not a must see piece, but still so much fan to watch. Taue and Kawada are exactly fighting each other like two guys in a heated feud should - constantly derailing the match to beat eachother up. There is a good FIP secton on Kikuchi - he doesn't take one of his biggest beatings (thankfully), but still gets slammed and kicked around good - and in a funny moment he gets heel heat when breaking up a pinfall right after surviving said heat section. Nothing mindblowing, bu…

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