Posted October 4, 201014 yr comment_5456770 Tenryu vs. Jimmy Garvin - They got off to a sluggish start with too much lying around in holds. I liked it when Tenryu got sick of Precious' antics on the outside and slammed Jimmy emphatically, right in front of her. He later pointed at the valet before landing his top-rope elbow on her man. Therefore, I liked the fact that Jimmy took advantage of Precious' distraction tactics to break up a run of high-impact offense by Tenryu. He then went after Tenryu's legs and tossed in piledriver for good measure. But Jimmy missed an elbow drop and that gave Tenryu the opening he needed to slap the pretty boy in a Texas clover leaf for the submission win. If the first 10 minutes had been nearly as good as the last five, this might have been a nomination. I did enjoy the Precious-Tenryu dynamic. Gordy/Hayes vs. Jumbo/Kabuki - Solid tag match with Gordy and Hayes doing their classic cut-off-the-ring stuff. I especially liked it when Jumbo tried to bounce off the ropes to start a comeback, but Gordy pulled down the second rope so he instead fell backwards to the floor. Gordy then busted him on the post and nailed a piledriver on the floor. Kabuki eventually took a hot tag and nailed the Freebirds with his signature uppercuts and spinning kicks. That set up a great nearfall with Jumbo holding Hayes over his knee so Kabuki could hit his fistdrop from the second rope. But then we got a crappy finish with Higuch disqualifying the Freebirds for a perfectly reasonable amount of double teaming. With a better finish, this could have climbed into nomination territory. As was, I'll call it a near miss. Jerry Estrada/La Fiera vs. Tiger Mask/Magic Dragon - Nice little showcase for Fiera, who led Misawa through nifty lucha sequences, hit some great punches and took a huge bump to the floor. He absolutley looked like one of the best in the world. But the match just didn't develop enough. Funks vs. Kimura/Tsurumi - JIP with KImura working on Dory's taped ribs. This ended up being a Terry show, with him bumping around for Kimura, doing his standard punch rally and finishing Tsurumi with a rolling cradle. This was not one of the better versions of said show. Jumbo/Tenryu vs. Gordy/Martel - Lots of talent here and the match was good but lacking in memorable moments. Jumbo and Martel produced the hottest exchanges. Gordy authored another shitty finish when he tossed Higuchi to the floor for no apparent reason. Baba/Ishikawa vs. Hansen/Brody - As you might expect, Hansen and Brody just obliterated Ishikawa. Baba did a nice little run of housecleaning with the monster Americans actually selling for the boss. But they were too much for him two-on-one and scored the rare clean pin on Baba. The match was effective for what it was but lacked the drawn-out drama of say, the '89 tag with Hansen and Tenryu finishing off a gallant Baba. Race/Bockwinkel vs. Jumbo/Tenryu - JIP with an extended, unimaginative control segment on Tenryu. The match really picked up in the last 10 minutes, with Tenryu and Race both bleeding heavily and all four guys hitting vicious moves as they tried for the decisive pin. The draw ending was a bummer and between that and the big clip at the beginning, it's a no go. But they had me engaged for awhile.
