Yatsu knocked Tenryu loopy with an early slap, and boy, Tenryu held nothing back on his shots when he finally rejoined the fray. Yatsu and Misawa took the advantage by working on Kawada's leg, and every time Kawada rallied, he foolishly tried to take them on himself instead of tagging. I dug Tenryu's fury when he finally made the tag. But Misawa was able to cut him off with kicks and knock him to the floor. He hit Tenryu with a dive from the apron and they tumbled over the rail. Tenryu powerbombed Miswa on a table. Then, he and Kawada destroyed Yatsu with chairshots in and out of the ring. Jumbo and Hara even joined the brawl. This match coursed with animosity from the beginning, and I liked the central tension of Tenryu wanting a piece of Yatsu but having to wait in frustration as Kawada took his beating. The wild brawl at the end made a nice cherry. Solid nomination.

 

1988 All Japan TV Disc 2

Genichiro Tenryu/Toshiaki Kawada vs. Yoshiaki Yatsu/Tiger Mask, 1/23/88 (TV 2) (1/16-1/23)

- I always have a smile seeing Kawada and Misawa match up when they were so young. I think just like people were weary of certain moves on the New Japan set, they will be fed up with the back suplex on this set as a counter. I like the idea of Yatsu and Mask working on Kawada’s legs to keep the high flyer grounded. Of course, Kawada makes a great sympathetic character and mixes in some hope spots to keep it interesting (Body press, sunset flip). I need to make sure this match is on my Kawada set because if it isn’t, I need to make room. Great native-in-peril performance form Dangerous K. Once Kawada makes the hot tag, I loved the Tenryu-Mask portion with both guys ending up over the rail and on the table. There is no reason with the talent involved why there could not be a clean pin but the wild nature of the ending with chairs in the ring can ease the pain of the non-ending. Still ,I back this as a nomination!!! What a great day to watch All Japan Tags!!!

Toshiaki Kawada & Genichiro Tenryu vs. Tiger Mask II & Yoshiaki Yatsu (1/23/88)

 

TM & Kawada did their fast stuff to start off with but Yatsu would come in with Tenryu and he slapped the piss out of him forcing Tenryu to tag out no less to recover on the floor. The action kept going and it was good but I was just waiting for Tenryu to get back in to exact revenge on Yatsu and he did in spades. Tenryu just worked over Yatsu for a short time before it was TM/Kawada again as they were in together for most of the early part of the match. Kawada would get caught though and had his legs worked over for quite a while before getting the hot tag to Tenryu who was all over TM then Yatsu before they went to the floor with TM hitting a cross body block on Tenryu sending them both over the railing and to the crowd. This would set off a wild brawl on the floor featuring Tenryu powerbombing TM on the ringside table which had no give. This ended up being a double countout but this was a damn good match and an easy nomination.