January 1989

Some outstanding matwork between Fuchi and Joe to start us off, all with the announcers calling Joe the “#1 shooter” in the background. Every pairing works in similar fashion, and I suppose I’m surprised that Kabuki can hang on the mat with everyone else. But Joe Malenko is just an amazing wrestler to watch here, fluid in a way that very few have ever really been. That’s enough to make up for the fact that this would be a pretty bland match otherwise, considering there isn’t much of a layout and there aren’t really any repeated themes. It’s just a series of well-worked exchanges with everyone pairing getting some time. Sometimes, good wrestling is enough on its own. *…

One of my favourite matches of the style. The grappling in this match was amazing. Everything looked tight and out right gnarly at times. One thing I loved in this match was everything lead into each other. For example, Maeda's suplexes almost always lead to a submission attempt on the arm. But the focus of the match was Maeda constantly going for the legs. As great as Maeda was, Takada was the star with his all time great underdog performance. His selling of the leg was fantastic and his defence of the grappling from Maeda was great. He got in some great strikes to gain the advantage in parts of the match. Great battle, filled with struggle and top notch grappling. ****3…

Originally televised on NESN sports channel in Boston. This is available now on the 2018 WWE DVD "Shawn Michaels The Showstopper Unreleased", disc one. Talk about it here.

Just watched the 6 man and fuck it was fun. Can't believe I watched a match with Dino fucking Bravo in it and actually enjoyed It, but it did also feature Bret and the Rougous so there was still a chance I'd like it and I did. Crowd was wild for the faces esp too. Some great action in this, esp as soon as Bret gets tagged in and I loved his stuff with both Rougous. It also reminded me how enjoyable the Hart Foundation were as a team and the role Anvil played in it all with him coming in and just cleaning house and being the quick power man. After watching Duggan in Mid South greatness, it's always a come…

Not sure how much of this was edited for Prime Time, it's a time limit draw but they don't say what the time limit was. Well we get a little less than 10 minutes of it but that's plenty of time for both of these two and even in this format this is very good. Big momentum shifts, excellent selling from both, great punches from Hennig. Lord Alfred will tell you he's no nansy pansy. I really dig Gorilla with the coffee (presumably with a shot) in the bumpers. When they do turn this one up they run through a lightning fast sequence or two. Not must-see but gives a good idea where both were at at the time.

What a nice find. A match mostly dominated by matwork, with some really good reversals and counters, especially from Malenko. I really liked how Malenko had Fuchi in the double arm hold and tripped him down into a butterfly lock. Fuchi works the arm for a bit and when Malenko bridges out of a hold, Fuchi armwhips him down and tries for the crossface chickenwing, but in a great counter, Joe hooks the leg to take Fuchi down to the mat before going back to the leg. Loved how Fuchi sells Malenko's holds and the annoyed expression on his face when he's able to escape. The finishing stretch is a suplex exhibition from Joe, who hits a snap fisherman suplex hold, a fallaway suple…

Ric Flair & Barry Windham vs Ricky Steamboat & Eddie Gilbert - NWA World Championship Wrestling 1/21/89 Before I forget, I want to talk about the post-match. Steamboat was great: calm, cool, collected he just pinned the World's Heavyweight Champion clean in the middle of the ring and stated his goal to become World Champion. It really picks up with Flair. Flair loses his fucking mind. Wow! How much does that loss mean to him? Think about you truly believe you're the best, but you just got your shoulders pinned to the mat 1-2-3 by your archrival from a decade ago who just showed up unannounced for the first time in five years. In a shoot, that would fuck with …

Available on the WWE DVD "Shawn Michaels, Heartbreak & Triumph", disc 2. Talk about it here

This was like 85% Bulldogs. You maybe expect them to run riot over Fuyuki, but Tenryu gave them a ton as well and that meant he never really got to stretch out on offence. When he did fire back he was pretty subdued. I don't think he threw any unnecessary chops to anybody's throat and nobody got kicked in the eye. Dynamite looked a little broken down at this point, but Davey's stuff mostly looked good and chucked Tenryu onto a table with a big gorilla press slam. The last five-six minutes took an interesting turn when Tenryu wound up with a split chin and the Bulldogs started working over the cut. It's a pretty unusual body part to work over, not like a cut on the forehea…

Devastation Inc, Embry, Jarrett and JJ Funk got involved and that unfortunately ended this. This was a really great and classic match. Parsons was on top of his game here and was such an awesome heel. He was just nasty trying to make Brick call him Master. I loved how he had it in control and was strutting and taunting the fans, with the fans buying into it and yelling at him back. Loved his punches and his selling was also a ton of fun too. This was your classic brawl and a total lost gem that I was thrilled to discover. I legit may go 5 stars because this was pretty great. Definitely a must see if you are into the Memphis brawling style. I was really disappointed when t…

That was a real treat for me because I'm not too familiar with that period of time in the career of the British Bulldogs. I knew that they quit WWE shortly following Summerslam in 88 (and the Dynamite Kid-Jacques Rougeau incident) but I wasn't sure of when they had gone to Japan. Also my first real shot at seeing Joe Malenko, other than that time they were involved in that special tournament in WCW in 1991(?) at Starrcade. Really good pace in that match and some very cool sequences. There's one in particular between Dynamite Kid and Joe Malenko where Joe locks in a Full Nelson and Dynamite breaks it, drops down but Joe picks him right back up by the legs and locks th…