Posted February 25, 200916 yr comment_5437709 DVD #20, Ginnetty 1988 season NJ HH 3/19/88 Takada/Yamazaki vs. Honaga/Kobayashi - Yamazaki and Kobayashi appeared to shoot on each other after an early strike exchange. Takada and the seconds had to rush the ring to break them up. They continued the match, however, and the crowd buzzed whenever Yamazaki and Kobayashi hooked up. They struggled to cooperate and several times, Takada had to stealth tag Yamazaki so he could keep things from getting out of hand. So it was interesting to watch them manage this volatile situation, but the match wasn't any great shakes. Maybe an extra? Tatsumi Fujinami/Kengo Kimura/George Takano vs. Riki Choshu/SS Machine/Masa Saito - This was unremarkable early, but the intensity picked up with a hot middle section between SS Machine and Takano. Machine got the better of it with a diving headbutt and Takano proceeded to take a real ass kicking from team Choshu. He did a nice job of flopping around as he took lariats, suplexes and piledrivers galore. Fujinami and Kimura interceded enough to keep things interesting, and Choshu hit a nasty lariat on one of them to protect the final pin. Hot crowd as well. This might not make it in the end, but it's worth watching so I'll move it along. NJ HH 3/6/82 Riki Choshu vs. Yoshiaki Yatsu - This was the shorter haired, less attitudinal version of Choshu. He and Yatsu were both high-end amateurs so they did a fair amount of grappling here. Without real submission attempts, the mat stuff was OK but not super interesting. Things got testier at times and the finish involved a piledriver on the floor. The match never quite took off, however. Killer Khan vs. Rusher Kimura - This was all stomps, knees, headbutts and slaps to the face. No complaints there. It was actually on the enjoyable end of Kimura matches in NJ. They set up the finish well as Khan spilled to the outside and Kimura headbutted him off the apron every time he climbed back up. The crowd got pretty excited when Khan struggled back in and hit a kneedrop to set up a surprise pin. I liked the directness of the match but each stanza could've used a little more room to breath. At 15 minutes of brutality instead of eight, this might have pulled a nomination.
