Posted January 25, 200916 yr comment_5436891 Southern Boys (Tracey Smothers/Steve Armstrong) vs. Strong Machine/George Takano 4/13/89 Parts of this were pretty fun, but nothing that really stood out, I hope we can find a Southern Boys match for the set, but this isn’t it. Hiro Saito v. Naoki Sano 4/24/89 Perfunctory stuff at the beginning, and then Saito misses a tope and smashes his face really hard into the turnbuckle, gets really good for a couple of minutes after that, but has a shitty finish. Worth watching, but not setworthy Masa Chono v. Big Van Vader 4/24/89 Kind of a mess with Chono getting dumped on his head awkwardly a bunch of times Tatsumi Fujinami v. Vladimir Berkovich 4/24/89 Berkovich brings very little here, and we will have an epic ton of Fujinami on the set already. Victor Zangiev vs. Buzz Sawyer 4/24/89 This was a blast as Zangiev is a fun poor mans Volk Han, but this only goes 4 minutes. I could see it as an extra Shinya Hashimoto vs. Riki Choshu 4/24/89 Really important match, as this is Hash’s big win over Choshu, but we can’t put a 3 minute match on a set.
January 26, 200916 yr comment_5436902 Southern Boys (Tracey Smothers/Steve Armstrong) vs. Strong Machine/George Takano 4/13/89 Nothing stands out in my memory of this. Below-par Southern Boys match. Hiro Saito v. Naoki Sano 4/24/89 I enjoyed this as Sano's offense always looks great to me, and Saito took that crazy face-first bump on the missed tope. A good ending could have pushed it to a nomination, but instead, it was the worst part of the match. Masa Chono v. Big Van Vader 4/24/89 Vader's not the best guy to get sloppy with because presumably, you really could die. Chono escaped serious injury but this pretty well sucked. Tatsumi Fujinami v. Vladimir Berkovich 4/24/89 Berkovich looked like Volk Han but proved to be the least interesting of the Russian invaders. Victor Zangiev vs. Buzz Sawyer 4/24/89 Give these guys 10 minutes and you'd have a set-worthy match. I loved seeing Buzz in his amateur gear, consulting the former U.S. Olympic wrestlers at ringside. They traded some gnarly looking suplexes, but a match almost has to go more than four minutes to stand up to this kind of competition. I could see it as a fun extra, however. Shinya Hashimoto vs. Riki Choshu 4/24/89 This felt big, kind of like the NJ version of the Jumbo-Misawa stuff from 1990. But the match didn't live up to the moment at all.
