Jumbo Tsuruta & Tiger Mask vs. Stan Hanson & Ted Dibiase (PWF Tag Title, 7/3/87) (17:53)

- Dibiase and Misawa play the whipping posts for their respective teams. Most of the match is back and forth with Hansen and Jumbo setting up advantages hat their partners cannot capitalize on. Hansen-Misawa was pretty entertaining though as Hansen would counter Misawa’s speed in clever ways. For instance, early on, Misawa’s leg gets caught by Hansen, who just flips him hard to the mat and follows with an elbow drop. Later on, Hansen charges the corner, realizes he can’t catch speedy Misawa and grounds him with a headlock. Misawa and Dibiase do the spinning toe hold to the outside to the plancha sequence that appeared in the singles match but the match was won when Misawa beat the count and Dibiase couldn’t make it to the ring. Solid tag match that deserves consideration even if it does not make it very far.

 

(AJC 152)

With the New Japan set, we talked a lot about matches that were clearly good but did not stand out in our memories. This struck me as one of those. Everybody looked good and they kept a brisk pace without abandoning sound tag team logic. But I'm struggling to think of anything noteworthy to talk about. So this stays on my no pile.

PWF Tag Titles: Ted DiBiase & Stan "The Lariat" Hansen © vs. Tiger Mask II & Jumbo Tsuruta (7/3/87)

 

This is a brawl at the bell as the gaijin attack the natives and it's a match where when DiBiase & TM are in against each other, it's pretty balanced but when those two are in against Hansen & Jumbo, they are taking punishment. Hansen & Jumbo have some pretty fun hard hitting exchanges as well which is to be expected. Very solid match with both teams working at a fast pace especially Jumbo who seemed motivated here. TM would hit his big plancha on the floor on DiBiase and it ended up being a 4-way battle before TM would beat the count back to the ring and won the titles. Very good match and it moves forward.