Posted November 10, 200916 yr comment_5445736 DVD #1 1/2/88 Special (taped 1/2/88 ) 1. Giant Baba/Akira Taue vs. Buddy Landell/Paul Harris (3:38 aired) No. Green Taue was amusing, and fat Buddy stooging and bumping is never boring, but this is nothing. 2. Tiger Mask vs. Curt Hennig (11:20 aired) This really picked up in the last 2 minutes, with Misawa hitting a GREAT baseball slide dropkick to the outside and a really nice plancha, but the first 9 minutes are mostly dick around arm work that goes nowhere and nobody care about. If it had a couple more minutes as good as the last 2, it would be nominated. But it didn't. 3. Hiroshi Wajima vs. Abdullah the Butcher (6:50 aired) I LOVED this, and I imagine this being one that I fight to get on, only for it to finish dead last. Abby no sells a bunch and does his hilarious karate poses, but Wajima keeps coming back stronger and stronger, before using his sump expertise to do a couple legitimately impressive throws on Abby. Abby eventually gets him down and does his big elbow, but Wajima gets his foot on the ropes! Great hope spot. Then Abby does a couple more giant elbows and socks Joe Higuchi and we're out. Fun match with Wajima (whom isn't one of my favorites) playing a underdog you can really get behind. It's not long, but I enjoyed it. NOMINATION. 4. Genichiro Tenryu/Ashura Hara vs. Jumbo Tsuruta/Yoshiaki Yatsu (15:47 aired) This was really good and had a nice chaotic feel to it without actually leaving the ring. Yatsu was just throwing people around, and Tenryu hits a nasty Jumbo knee and some big moves. Everything had a kind of sloppiness to it, not in a bad way, more in a believable kinda way. Really fun stuff. NOMINATE. 5. Battle Royal (6:41 aired) John Tenta wins one of these schmozz deals. He looks so genuinely stoked to have won, it put a smile on my face. 1/9/88 (taped 1/9/88 ) 1. Giant Baba/John Tenta vs. Rusher Kimura/Goro Tsurumi (2:48 of 6:36 aired) Not much, but damn is Tenta's dropkick always impressive. 2. Yoshiaki Yatsu/Hiroshi Wajima vs. Pete Roberts/Paul Harris (12:40 complete) Fun seeing Pete Roberts do cool armwork, and this is a fine way to spend 12 minutes, but not enough to nominate. 3. Jumbo Tsuruta vs. Buddy Landell (4:58 complete) IF this had gone a little longer I would nominate it. It's a fun little sprint with fat Buddy bumping huge for what Jumbo throws at him. It might be worth throwing on for fun at the end of a disc or something. 4. Genichiro Tenryu/Ashura Hara vs. Abby/TNT (Savio Vega) (10:53 of 17:39 aired) This match is going really well until it just doesn't have an ending. We go to commercial with no warning, and we never come back to the match. It just kinda stops in the middle of the action. Abby and Tenryu squaring off is fun, but you never build to the money shot. Maybe the ending is out there somewhere?
