Posted June 18, 200916 yr comment_5440887 #280 12/31/97 1/25/88 Shiro Koshinaka vs. Keiichi Yamada - Yamada was just awesome here, running around like the Flash. When he slows things down, he attacks Koshinaka’s leg. I am not used to such focused body work by Liger. I am used to him using his large arsenal of moves to win. Seriously, I thought this was going to be all butt bumps and dropkicks. In stead, I get a match with Yamada destroying Koshinaka’s bum leg. Yamada smashing Kosh’s ankle with the bell = AWESOME. Seriously, what a one-sided ass kicking squash that you start rooting for Koshinaka as the poor soul who happened to get in the ring with Yamada that day. Great stretch run after Yamada flies from the turnbuckle. Love the fact that Kosh wins and even though I didn’t think of him as an underdog going in, I felt that way, halfway through the match. Strong nomination. 1/25/88 Big Van Vader vs. George Takano/Kantaro Hoshino - Fun to see Vader murder these guys but not a nomination. 1/25/88 Riki Choshu/Hiroshi Hase/Masa Saito vs. Steve Williams/Owen Hart/Buzz Sawyer - Man, I like all these guys. They pair up in an editor’s cut version of lucha matchups. Each apir goes in there and does some stuff to establish personas like Buzz dancing around the ring, Saito giving Doc a standing clothesline that just drops him and Hase and Owen running and flipping. I like how Saito watches the gaijin corner before turning over the Sharpshooter… only to get nailed by Sawyer anyway. Good stuff. Complete sprint here. They throw everything they can into 10 minutes of action. GREAT counter-powerslam by Buzz. This was pretty much a non-stop spotfest with a bad ending but I give it a mild nomination because I think it would be a total crowd pleaser and did have some good sequences and no blown spots as far as I could tell.
