All Japan Classics 105

 

Harley Race & Nick Bockwinkel vs. Takashi Ishikawa & Mighty Inoue (12/8/84)

- Petty neat to see Race and Bock teaming together but they make quick work of the natives.

 

Gran Hamada & Mighty Inoue vs. Chavo & Hector Guerrero (9/12/84)

- I think the Mid South set has made me raise the bar on Guerrero matches and it isn’t good enough just for a Guerrero match to be good. The Guerreros look good in this match but there was some sloppiness that caused certain sequences to come off awkward. After the match, the Guerreros show what sore losers they are and destroy the natives. That was fun to watch. I could see someone nominating this but it won’t be me.

 

Jumbo Tsuruta vs. Greg Gagne (AWA Title, 4/19/84)

- I like Greg Gagne in tag teams. I don’t like him in singles. Early on, there is a lot of jockeying for position and tests of strength and killing time. I usually like this stuff but I can’t suspend my disbelief long enough to buy that Gagne could ever beat Jumbo in a test of strength. For Gagne to be effective, he needs to be jumping around, using speed to outsmart Jumbo and playing massive underdog. We don’t really see any of that here and I lost interest quickly.

Nick Bockwinkel & "Mr. Puroresu" Harley Race vs. Mighty Inoue & Takashi Ishikawa (12/8/84)

 

Short match that the legends win fairly easily but Inoue shows some great fire here.

 

Gran Hamada & Mighty Inoue vs. Chavo & Hector Guerrero (9/12/84)

 

Great seeing Hamada show up and even greater seeing Chavo & Hector teaming up in Japan. This is one of those matches that is more fun than good as I was digging everyone in the match but the match as a whole had some issues with blown spots and overall sloppiness that hurt it in my eyes. I would've loved to have seen Chavo vs. Hamada in a singles match though as they had some fun exchanges. Good action and a cute finish plus angry Guerreros at the end was nice but still not a nomination.

 

Next is Jumbo vs. Gagne which I've seen.