Posted September 26, 201015 yr comment_5456281 Tenryu/Ishikawa vs. Hara/Inoue - JIP but this turned into a really solid match with Inoue playing a great fiery underdog and the crowd going nuts for some stiff exchanges between Hara and Tenryu. I loved the stretch run when Ishikawa had Inoue clamped in a scorpion deathlock and Tenryu and Hara were just slapping and butting the shit out of each other in the background. The draw ending came off flat and between that and the big clip, I can't recommend it. But it was way above average for the TV of this era. Baba vs. Smirnoff - Baba handled his business without too much resistance. Terry/Jumbo vs. Singh/Ueda - The crowd was hyped to see Terry gain some revenge on Singh and Ueda, and I liked the way he and Jumbo cleared the ring at the beginning and stood back-to-back like the last fighters in the Alamo. I also liked the way Singh used Terry's aggression against him by drawing him into a fistfight and then nailing him in the throat with an object from his tights. But the match lost its shape as it went on and ended with the usual Singh/Ueda DQ clusterfuck. Chavo Guerrero vs. Masa Fuchi - They started with some solid, if slow, matwork and the match really picked up when they started chopping the shit out of each other. But it ended pretty abruptly with Chavo getting counted out after eating a suplex on the floor. Decent but these guys were capable of a lot more. Hansen/Shaw vs. Tenryu/Ishikawa - This came off as a near-squash with Hansen and Shaw clubbing on the Japanese most of the way. Manny Fernandez vs. Jumbo Tsuruta - I loved the way they struggled over simple movements early in the match. Manny focused on Jumbo's arm, mixing holds with some nifty forearm uppercuts to the elbow. When Jumbo broke the hold with an uppercut, Manny fired back with three brutal strikes as if to say, "You wanna slug it out? Fine." They laid the base for something really good but then Jumbo reeled off a few big moves and pinned Manny with the Thesz press. I guess Manny wasn't a big enough deal to merit a 20-minute war with the top guy, but I was bummed. Rheingans/Tyler vs. Hara/Inoue - This wasn't too exciting, mainly because the gaijin team failed to bring much. Chavo vs. Fuchi - Already reviewed.
