Posted March 12, 200817 yr comment_5429416 All Japan Classics 145 Tiger Jeet Singh/Karl Moffat v. Kabuki/Takashi Ishikawa (06/09/87) - No Jumbo Tsuruta/Tiger Mask v. Tommy Rich/Jerry Oates (03/28/87) - I know Phil will blame it all on Jumbo but Tommy Rich really sucks in Japan. His bumping and selling is incopnsistent. He even gets outworked by Oates in this match,. He goes for the chinlock after a few seconds in the ring. In this match, don't compare him to Jumbo or Misawa. Compare him to his own partner and he is the weak link here. He also looks really out of shape here. I know he was doing good heel work in Memphis around this time so I don't know what is going on. Toward the end of the match, he shows some fire but not enough to move this to the next round. No vote. Stan Hansen/Ted Dibiase v. Wajima/Takashi Ishikawa (04/02/87) - This was perfectly acceptable tag wrestling. For most of the match, Dibiase & Hansen have their way with the natives. THey make a brief comeback but Hansen wins with the Lariat. I gues sthe biggest problem with this match is you won't remember anything that happened a week from now. Jumbo Tsuruta & Genichiro Tenyru v. Road Warriors (Int'l Tag title, 03/12/87) - The great thing about a Jumbo clothesline is you are forced to sell it... at least for a couple of seconds before you bench press hm off of you after a pin attempt. Nice spot as Tneryu and Hawl reverse the clothesline sequence and this time Tenryu gets damaged. Things pick up with Hawk and Jumbo as they do a double clothesline knockout spot. When they recover, Hawk clotheslines him from behind shooting Jumbo out of the ring in a nice bump. Overall, this was way better than your average Roadies match. The restholds on Tenryu were annoying since they could have abused him with their power moves. I am used to the small guys grounding the bigger guys so they can't use their strength against them. With that said, there were some sweet spots in the stretch run and the fact that Tneryu kicked out of moves that put away nearly all U.S. competitors made this compelling. In order to keep him down, they give him a spike piledriver on the concrete and get the counout victory. This would be the definition of a moral victory for the natives. I have no problem nominating this although I don't know how far it will get in the process.
September 9, 201015 yr comment_5455474 Jason the Terrible & Tiger Jeet Singh vs. The Great Kabuki & Takashi Ishikawa (6/9/87) JIP and not good. Tiger Mask II & Jumbo Tsuruta vs. Jerry Oates & Tommy "Wildfire" Tommy Rich (3/28/87) This had some good action and a nice stretch run but this isn't a nomination sadly. Ted DiBiase & Stan "The Lariat" Hansen vs. Takashi Ishikawa & Hiroshi Wajima (4/2/87) This was good for what it was. NWA International Tag Titles: Genichiro Tenryu & Jumbo Tsuruta © vs. The Road Warriors (Animal & Hawk) (3/12/87) Budokan is hot for this one and finally we have a Roadies match that warrants a nomination. This had some good hard hitting action early with the Roadies taking as well as they gave as they have become more of a complete team at this stage of their career. There was a hot stretch run where Tenryu ate all the Roadies finishers and stayed alive eventually rolling to the floor but he would take a spike piledriver with the Roadies coming back to the ring to win the titles by countout. Like I said earlier, this was the best Roadies match I've seen in Japan so far and this moves forward.
