Posted February 6, 200817 yr comment_5427877 All Japan Classics 184 Kabuki & John Tenta vs. Tiger Conway Jr. & Pez Whatley (9/2/89) - Early on, this actually isn’t half-bad. The Jive Tones do some decent double team moves on Tenta to try to neutralize the size advantage in between their dancing and showboating. Even Kabuki was inoffensive and was bumping and selling as much as Kabuki can sell. And no nerve hold… which is always a plus. Still, the crowd was really dead for this and nothing besides the Jive Tone double teams really stood out. And those weren’t so spectacular that this match would make a set. No vote. Joe & Dean Malenko vs. Bobby Fulton & Tommy Rogers (7/15/89) (22:53) - Watching Dean and Tommy Rogers battle early on with nifty counters was a real treat. Even Joe and Bobby kept my interest with enough momentum shifts and control segments that you couldn’t classify it as bad wrestling. Still, both teams kept it interesting even though the crow didn’t seem to care. What impressed me about these two teams is that the last 7-8 minutes were hot enough that the crowd was really behind the match by the end including the sweet finish. Not crazy and insane but about as much as two gaigin junior teams could muster. Solid nomination. Jumbo Tsuruta & Yoshiaki Yatsu vs. Stan Hansen & Toshiaki Kawada (6/8/89) (20:12) - Early on, Kawada and Hansen use Yatsu as their personal punching bag. Yatsu is non-descript but Kawada and Hansen have enough exciting offense to more than make up for it. When Yatsu and Jumbo take over, the match isn’t nearly as exciting. Still, young Kawada takes an ass-beating about as well as anyone including a nice powerbomb and a spike piledriver. Once again, we get a pretty hot ending in a tag match where Jumbo puts Kawada away. This isn’t a great tag but more than worthy of a nomination. So far, this is one of the better episodes of AJ Classics I have seen from beginning to end. A tag I thought would suck was inoffensive and the other two were worthy of nominations in my view. Good stuff.