Posted July 5, 201015 yr comment_5452750 DVD #2 1/17/87 (taped 1/17) 1. Yoshiaki Yatsu/Shinnichi Nakano vs. Jumbo Tsuruta/Genichiro Tenryu (10:36 complete) - Yatsu showed great fire after taking hot tags from Nakano, who spent most of the match getting his ass stomped. Nakano got his moment to shine at the end, when he took a tag from Yatsu and drilled Jumbo with a missile dropkick to set up a nearfall. But Jumbo followed by absolutely wrecking him with a lariat and backdrop suplex. They actually packed a bunch of action into 10 minutes and this crept to the edge of nomination territory. But considering the volume of great tag wrestling we'll be sifting, I'll call it a just miss. 2. Giant Baba/Hiroshi Wajima vs. Ashura Hara/Goro Tsurumi (7:28 complete) - Reviewed on Classics. 3. Riki Choshu vs. Curt Hennig (8:18 complete) - They showed some nice fight with the early grappling and Choshu gave Henning an extended run of offense that climaxed with a Perfect Plex. But there was little question this would end with a Riki lariat and so it came to pass. Decent match but compared to something like Martel-Choshu from the previous month, it paled. 1/24/87 (taped 1/24) 1. Tiger Mask/Takashi Ishikawa vs. Curt Hennig/Frankie Lancaster (4:17 shown) - Misawa and Henning showed good chemistry with Curt doing a better job than most of getting in perfect position for the dives. This ended on a heatless countout after one such dive to the outside. 2. Hiroshi Wajima vs. Tiger Jeet Singh (7:44 complete) - Reviewed on Classics. 3. Jumbo Tsuruta/Genichiro Tenryu vs. Riki Choshu/Yoshiaki Yatsu (17:56 shown) - This is getting to be like the Choshu/Fujinami series from New Japan. I go into every match looking for a reason not to nominate it, and every time, I leave thinking, "Goddamn, that was awesome!" Again, they did everything with such intensity. Jumbo would go to grab Yatsu's arm and instead of just giving it to him, Yatsu would start a chop fight. Tenryu produced this great moment where he rolled under a Choshu lariat, popped up and took Riki down into an armbar. I also loved the fights he put up when Choshu went for the scorpion. Choshu and Yatsu hit some devastating double-team moves for their part. But the match turned on a moment of hubris from Jumbo. He had taken the hot tag from Tenryu, and the two of them were finally kicking the shit out of Choshu. But instead of pinning him, Jumbo pulled him up at two to continue the punishment. He then wandered off to fight with Yatsu on the outside. That left Choshu the opening he needed to hit a lariat out of nowhere on the beaten down Tenryu. Nifty ending to a great fucking match. Slam dunk nomination.
