February 1989

This is the only time these two teams wrestled each other and it happened as part of a cross-promotional event put on by the AWA, All Japan, and what was left of Central States Wrestling in front of a very sparse crowd in Kansas City. Given the historical significance of the match and the track record of the two teams, these four deserved better. There’s nothing amazing about this match but it’s still a very good tag match that is worth watching for nothing other than the novelty of the matchup. It’s definitely worth watching for current wrestlers, for some of the nuances and little things these four bring to the table to shake up the standard tag formula of shine/h…

Akio Sato, Steve Ray, Wayne Bloom, Derrick Dukes, Mike Enos, Tommy Jammer, Pat Tanaka, Tom Zenk, Paul Diamond, Greg Gagne, Ken Patera, Ricky Rice, Larry Zbyszko, Wahoo McDaniel, Manny Fernandez, Sgt. Slaughter, Colonel DeBeers, and Mike George.

This felt like a match worked for the magazines. Not much substance but the visuals were pretty big and amazing. You had big time blood and both guys threw huge, high angle suplexes. Hase has a bandaged leg and Koshinaka spends a good amount of time kicking the crap out of it. It doesn't amount to anything as Hase soon starts braining Koshinaka recklessly with chairs. The bloody beatdown on Koshinaka with him fighting back valiently was pretty damn gnarly. Soon Hase is DQ'd for excessive brutality. This had the makings of a potential classic but was dragged down by the pointless legwork and Hase making a comeback that looked way too easy. However, we get Hase & Hiro S…

Not a hidden gem like SSM/Hashimoto, but it had it's charms in similiar ways. Fujiwara is unusually grumpy and looking for a fight. SSM soon finds himself pushed and he responds with some gnarly shots of his own. I really liked how SSM tried to prevent Fujiwara's obligatory headbutt spot. Another neat finish.

A more compact version of their June '88 match with a few of the same spots surrounding Vader catching Fujinami (i.e. the tumbling out of the ring on the crossbody). Again Fujinami looks pretty strong here, hitting suplexes and backdrops. This time when Fujinami slips out of the suplex attempt, he uses a sleeper to wear Vader down for the dragon sleeper. Vader also comes off the top rope with an avalanche before he creams Fujinami with a lariat for the win. Fun match.

Cool JWP style match. It's a little hard to discern where the line between your average cool JWP match and the great stuff is. The work isn't exactly high end and there's no overarching story, but then the work is GOOD and you get all kinds of neat spots which set these two apart from your average girly spotblower. I really liked the wrestling they did here – nothing high end, but just well executed basic stuff, such as Plum resisting a toe hold, or Kazama turning an Achilles Hold into almost a figure 4 spot by extending the leg to block the pressure. Here Plum gets the better of Kazama with some impressive counters and Kazama almost breaks her jaw with some whack spin ki…

Magnum T.A. says Steve Casey is trying to prove himself in the NWA and may have bitten off more than he can chew with ‘Hacksaw’ someone who is “all man”. The camera bizarrely cuts away from the in ring action to focus on a couple eating each other’s faces off! Lengthy armbar/wristlock from Casey. Reed escapes, stalls and then goes after the arm himself. Casey is apparently unbeaten in the NWA and putting that unbeaten record on the line here. It’s been a while since I watched the NWA TV seasons but I can’t ever remember seeing him win a match. Casey escapes the armbar and slaps on… an armbar. Lots of shots of the crowd because of how boring this is. Jim Ross think…

Flair is wearing a knee length fur jacket and has five models along with Hiro Matsuda accompanying him as he makes his way to the ring to be interviewed by Bob Caudle. ‘The Naitch’ notes that Ricky Steamboat is in the building and invites him out and to take his pick of the women as he must be bored going home to the same lady every night. He goes on to talk about money being no object when you have a manager like Hiro Matsuda and a multi-million dollar company behind you. Steamboat joins them and again Flair offers up the ladies. Like the wholesome family man is going to accept? Flair suggests Steamer do himself a favour and walk away from Monday night. They go bac…

Jack Victory under the hood and working his second match of the night (this won’t be the only time that will be said in 1989). The Blackmailer is managed by Hiro Matsuda, although I doubt he’s his prized asset. Fancy going from Flair to the Blackmailer in consecutive segments? Another match with long drawn out moves, this time Lex working a side headlock. Victory escapes with a great looking belly to back suplex but Luger completely no sells it, being up to his feet before Jacko. Back to the side headlock… and again. Jim Ross points out that he isn’t showing much variety in his offense. And again. It’s not even like he’s cranking it in, just holding the Blackmaile…

The Russian Assassins don’t even get an entrance as they’re already in the ring as we return from a commercial break. ‘Sweet’ Stan switches to his karate to combat the strength advantage of Russian Dave Sheldon. Plenty of quick tags by the Midnights. We get an insert interview from Paul E. Dangerously who thinks it is very generous of Jim Herd to let everyone see Jim Cornette for one last time before he and his Original Midnight Express put them out of the NWA. Oddly, Heyman then joins Jim Ross and Magnum T.A. on commentary for the match. Corny looks to get some practice in for the Chi Town Rumble as he squares up to Paul Jones however Tommy Young gets between them. …

Rip Morgan does the ‘Haka’ and the moment he’s finished Steiner is over and biting at his leg. We get an insert interview from Mike Rotundo who thinks it’ll be like taking candy from a baby when he faces Steiner for the TV title at the Chi Town Rumble. Morgan rams Steiner’s head into the turnbuckles, which he no sells, and then repeatedly rams his own head into it to show that has no effect on him. Scoop powerslam. Steiner runs into a big boot as Ripper takes over. He misses a splash off the middle though and as the action continues Steiner counters his bearhug with a belly to belly for the win. Not much to this and it wouldn’t have looked out of place on the Sa…

Earlier in the show Bob Caudle conducted an interview with ‘the Dragon’ and questioned why he was taking this match so close to the Chi Town Rumble. Steamboat replied that he was taking a bunch of ‘tune up’ matches in preparation for Monday night and this was one of them. He also warned Flair not to interfere like he did on TBS. I’m imagining Flair is too busy sorting out his wardrobe to be concerned with that now. Steamboat is accompanied by wife Bonnie and little Richie. Bradley with a hip toss, a scoop slam and an arm drag. ‘The Dragon’ replies with a pair of hip tosses, two slams and two arm drags as Bradley then takes a powder to the floor. I like the psyc…

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They should’ve got Michael Hayes to do the pre-show hype based on the interview he cuts before his match with the Russian Assassin. Hayes is over with the Chicago crowd, while ‘Number One’ Paul Jones is still knocking about, seconding a masked Jack Victory. Jim Ross mentions that ‘P.S.’ started as a seventeen year old and has ten years’ experience, yes Michael Hayes is only 27 here! Hayes dictates the pace early with side headlocks and armbars, “good sound strategy” according to JR. The Assassin slaps on a rear chinlock and Ross explains the psychology behind the move as even though it is basic, if applied correctly it is an effective hold. Hayes escapes and gets a o…

NWA World Heavyweight Champion Ric Flair vs Ricky Steamboat - NWA Chi-Town Rumble '89 What a crowd! There have been hotter crowds, but this crowd really lent a real sports feel to this match by how they were reacting. They cheered a Steamboat headlock takeover. The Steamboat double chop early was an electric moment and the following nearfall was treated like a big deal by the crowd. Every nearfall was getting big reactions and they were all on their feet for the finish. Of course, the reason why the crowd was so damn invested was because it was two of the greatest wrestlers of all time going toe-to-toe for the World's Heavyweight Championship. Ric Flair gave an absolu…

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Why doesn't this get brought up among „passing the torch“ type matches more often? It's quite the epic destruction of Inoki.Choshu immediately catches Inoki in a nasty headscissor and almost cranks his neck. Now Inoki wants a fight, throwing fists and all, but Choshu immediately nukes him with suplexes. A lariat should finish the job, but Inoki narrowly escapes and hangs on by a thread. Choshu is totally the dominant force in this though. Inoki hits some fast enzuigiris and they trade awesome punches and headbutts and this is great. Choshu ain't selling crap from this fossil though and another back suplex later he starts hitting the lariats. Choshu is like an airplane fly…

This is a great match with a captivating story. Yatsu & Jumbo are out to get Tenryu. The plan is to beat the living daylights out of Kawada and to sucker Tenryu in for the save. When Tenryu comes in, Jumbo will sprint across the ring to try to get his shots in on Tenryu who is more focused on saving Kawada. Kawada does a fantastic job as the FIP. And, you can really see that Tenryu absolutely hates seeing Kawada getting torn apart. Yatsu has Kawada trapped in submissions, and he is continuously taunting Tenryu from the mat. He's enjoying slapping Kawada in the face, while he has him trapped, looking up at Tenryu and pointing at him... daring him to come in. It…