August 1989

Riki Choshu, Jushin Liger & Kengo Kimura vs Big Van Vader, Buzz Sawyer & Manny Fernandez - NJPW 8/3/89 What you expect from the match is a strong focus on Choshu vs Vader because they are one week from their IWGP Championship. What you hope for is a strong focus on Vader vs Liger because that is a badass dream match you would have never expected to see...guess what baby it is all about Vader vs Liger! Before the bell, Liger races across the ring and dropkicks Vader in his bad arm off the apron. Vader flips the fuck out! He is screaming and hollering, writhing in pain. He grabs a chair from the audience and whips it at the opposing corner! O I think Im g…

Aaaaaah! Pro wrestling! WAR Hoshino!!! Hoshino immediately goes to town on goofy original costume Liger and just destroys him with barrages of awesome punch combos and rights and lefts and then some. Liger fires back with an awesome flurry of palm strikes only get punched in the FACE again and sinking to the 3rd rope selling this like a pro. After eating a truely Murdochian asskicking of punches, stumpy leg kicks and elbow drops, Liger makes a brief comeback directing a charging Hoshino to the outside and then crushing him with a sideways suicide dive against the guardrail. Hoshino won't back down though, as he posts Liger, slaps the referee and then fires back with a big…

Jushin Liger & AKIRA Nogami vs. Naoki Sano & Kantaro Hoshino - NJPW 8/8/89 A crucial match to watch before the Liger vs Sano IWGP Jr. Heavyweight Championship classic two days later as this kickass tag team match sets up the arm injury. This is also three days after a very heated Hoshino vs Liger match. It was a great week for the Junior Heavyweights. Liger comes out both barrels blazing! Nail big, electric baseball slide dropkicks on both opponents, but he gets greedy trying to suplex Sano from the ring to the floor. He leaves himself vulnerable and eats a dropkick from Hoshino. Sano follows up with a wicked suicide dive. With the advantage cemented the…

WWF World Champion Hulk Hogan vs Randy Savage - Wrestling Challenge 8/9/89 More bells & whistles than the previous matches because Zeus is here to build to Summerslam as is Elizabeth! I popped for that. I'm pretty sure this is a dark match. Savage & Sherri double team Hogan but Hogan gets the best of both of them. Then they move into 89 match template. I can't seem to find the next match in this series. Here we do get Liz slapping Savage and Hogan pinning Macho Man. Hogan Atomic drop to Sherri and a gratuitous ass shot. Zeus bear hug but Beefcake saves. Due to a great finish and the rest being the same this is the one to watch.

Don't really know what to say except that it has maybe the greatest selling performance in the history of pro wrestling **** 1/4

IWGP Champion Riki Choshu vs Vader - NJPW 8/10/89 HOSS FIGHT! Bill Watts eat your heart out! Good God Almighty, this is the wrestling I fucking live for! It is a step down from their 6/27/89, which finished #19 on the DVDVR rankings, but curiously this one which is a title change did not even place. This was fantastic! Vader dropped the title to Hashimikov in May, Choshu picked it up in July and now Vader has won it back. My theory is they were billing this tour as Japan vs USA vs USSR. I think they felt the need to throw the USSR a bone and have one of the Soviet Shooters win the title. They ultimately wanted to proceed with Vader as the Champion. After the Bigelow …

This is one of my favorite matchups in wrestling history, just two masters who brought out the best in each other. I had seen this match before in the 80s DVDVR Other Japan set, but that was a long time ago. Really enjoyed revisiting this. Fujiwara comes out super aggressive flying at Maeda with nasty jumping headbuts right in Maeda's dental work. Maeda responds with some nasty headkicks and the tone is set early. Fujiwara is so great at both taking and delivering body shots, they always look nasty when thrown, and he does a great job of trying to recover from getting hit in the liver himself. It slows down a bit with some matwork, Fujiwara gets locked in a bodyscissors a…

Miyato is usually terrific in the underdog role but here he excels at playing a bully as well. Typical awesome matwork and Tamura's selling in the final stages was masterful stuff. ****

The lineup for this looks amazing on paper. Smooth opening from Blue Panther and Super Astro. Atlantis comes in and demands Charles but gets Fuerza instead. Emilio gets in, he has lost his hair recently and takes time to taunt Atlantis. Subtle chicken shit interference from Blue Panther leads to a stand off and Faron gets a shine on all the rudos, so does Atlantis. Primera ends on a hurricanrana and The Atlantida. Segunda starts off with a Super Astro shine and the rudos tease leaving for the locker room. Blue Panther makes everyone he touches look a million bucks, but what else is new?. Heat starts when Panther and Fuerza save their partner and start to double tea…

Am curious to see what people's thoughts on this match are in general, as it's held in generally high esteem and I like it a lot, though it feels a tiny bit clunky at the end. Apparently Dave Meltzer only gave this two stars at the time, which I'm floored by.

Talk about it here.

WWF Intercontinental Champion Rick Rude vs Ultimate Warrior - Summerslam 1989 Every heel in the wrestling business should watch how Rick Rude sells. Heel selling is rapidly becoming a lost art. I should NOT feel sympathy for a heel. I should either be pointing & laughing OR wanting to see the babyface kick more ass. Rick Rude is the master of this. Every cringe and expression of pain, I get a little bit of joy and I want to see the Warrior pour more on. Warrior is pissed because Rude & The Brain stole the Intercontinental Title from him at WrestleMania V and this is his revenge match. He is full controlled anger, stalking King of the Jungle mode. Lots of Warr…

AJPW World Tag Team Champions Jumbo Tsuruta & Yoshiaki Yatsu vs Genichiro Tenryu & Toshiaki Kawada - AJPW 8/29/89 REVOLUTION IS BACK BABY! Rematch of one of the best matches of the year right here! Jumbo & Yatsu have since won the tag titles back from Hansen & Tenryu which we do have on tape if I have time I will try to review that. Stream of consciousness baby: Jumbo and Tenryu to stat! Heated as always. Tenryu bowls Jumbo over and goes for the Powerbomb early. He gives up. Jumbo gets an armbar takedown. They trade chops as Jumbo garners wrist control. Tenryu evades the High Knee and grabs the ankles and reverses Jumbo direction which was cool. …

Rick Martel & Fabulous Rougeaus w/Jimmy Hart & Slick vs Tito Santana & Rockers - Summerslam 89 It is Quebec's All-Star has been assembled to crush Tito Santana and his allies, The Rockers. If you add Dino Bravo, you would have a pretty badass Survivor Series Team. Also, they should have stuck Martel with Hart. He had all the other Quebecois at this point and he has the bitchin as all hell Quebec jacket. The story is cntered Ricky and Tito after the fallout from Wrestlemania V. From my understanding, they were running an angle around the horn where Martel would attack Tito from behind during his entrance. The referee would rule that the bout would have to …

IWGP Jr Heavyweight Champion Naoki Sano vs Akira Nogami - NJPW 8/31/89 Before AKIRA got a personality transplant he was just simply Akira Nogami in black trunks. Akira was a distant third all year to Liger & Sano, but the story is that he is out to prove himself. From the opening, he slaps Sano hard and never really lets up. He is constantly offensively minded. He makes up for his blandness with his relentless onslaught. Like anyone who passed through the NJPW dojo, he is a very sound worker. He was great on the mat and thought he had a really nice legdrop. The other story of the match was that Sano was the ultimate counter-wrestler always one step ahead of Akira …