Posted May 15, 200916 yr comment_5439524 Sort of an establishing match for the newly arrived Choshu's Army and a good one. Okuma and Hamaguchi took most of the punishment, with Choshu and Tenryu mostly teasing interactions rather than going at each other full bore. The crowd was way into the teases and seemed hyped about Choshu in general. Between that and Animal bleeding, this carried a lot more intensity than your usual non-main tag on the first show of the year. I don't have a good sense yet of how many good Choshu matches we'll see from '85 and '86, but I'll toss this one a low-end nomination.
May 15, 201015 yr comment_5450856 There was a point early on where I thought Okuma and Animal were going to shoot when Okuma started swinging. When Choshu hooked Tenryu into the sharpshooter, the crowd really came alive and the match took on a different speed. I agree with the low-level nomination. I don't know if this is a match I would miss if I ever saw again as I don't know of anyone who would be devastated if Okuma didn't pop up on the set.
July 4, 201015 yr comment_5452693 Animal Hamaguchi & Riki Choshu vs. Motoshi Okuma & Genichiro Tenryu (1/3/85) This is the second official match for Choshu in All-Japan. Korakuen Hall is molten for this one as Choshu slaps Tenryu in the face after the introduction and they are nuts for when they start the match. Hamaguchi & Okuma did most of the work here and they were fine but the teases of Choshu/Tenryu was what made this match. Hamaguchi would juice after being posted by Okuma so that gave this an extra touch leading to Tenryu working the cut and putting on the sasorigatame which pissed off Choshu who hit a huge lariat on Tenryu. Okuma would come in to eat a lariat on his own after some punishment for the win. This was paced really well with great heat and you had blood from Hamaguchi putting this match over the as a nomination.
