Posted July 10, 201015 yr comment_5452983 DVD #23 11/6/88 (taped 10/27/88 ) Tiger Mask/Shinnichi Nakano vs. Doug Furnas/Greg Brown (11:22 of 12:35 aired) - Blah match that failed to highlight the athleticism of MIsawa or Furnas. Genichiro Tenryu/Ashura Hara vs. Dan Spivey/Joel Deaton (12:34 complete) - I liked Spivey and Deaton as a lower-level team. Deaton could take punishment, do some fancy stuff and then tag in the brawling monster. Tenryu showed some fire in putting away Deaton at the end, but this never got beyond mid-level stuff. Jumbo Tsuruta/Yoshikai Yatsu vs. Stan Hansen/Dan Kroffat (8:00 complete) - All action here with Hansen playing the maniac all the way through and Jumbo and Yatsu focusing their attack on Kroffat by necessity. Hansen knocked Yatsu over the rail with a lariat but stayed distracted long enough that Jumbo put Kroffat away with a suplex. Fun, little TV match but not something that could stand up to the set-worthy tags. 11/13/88 (taped 10/28/88 ) Jumbo Tsuruta vs. Genichiro Tenryu (34:45 complete) - What can you say? This was an absolute war for 35 minutes. I liked the way neither guy would let the other get far ahead in the early going. They also did a nice job of hitting big exchanges of offense and then pulling back on the pace with hardfought hold sections. The last 10 minutes were amazing, with Tenryu trying to take out Jumbo's tired legs and Jumbo willing his way through to hit finish-worthy moves. They ended up brawling right through the ref, and Tenryu dropped Jumbo with multiple low blows. He then got disqualified for refusing to stop attacking in the corner. The ending really enriched their rivalry. You had Tenryu, who was clearly the fresher but didn't quite have the maturity to get his decisive win. And then you had Jumbo, looking like a broken, old man after emptying his tank to defend the throne. He tried to raise his arm in victory post-match but the crowd refused to respond. They knew who had really won. Anyway, great, epic shit and a strong top-five contender.
