Unremarkable until Jumbo hurt his wrapped arm on a lariat to Choshu's noggin. After that, Choshu and Khan beat the hell out of him to a shocking degree. Tenryu delivered a nasty run of offense off a hot tag and a bloodied Jumbo managed one nice run of knees and lariats. But the real story was the totality of the beatdown on the top guy. I mean Jumbo bled a lot and lay there helplessly as Khan destroyed his arm and leg with knees from the top. He took the countout and had to be hauled away by stretcher. Some might see it as an angle more than a great match, but it sure as shit got my attention. So I'll nominate it.

 

Ginnetty 1985 TV Disc 17

Jumbo/Tenryu vs. Choshu/Khan, 7/30/85

- Jumbo and Choshu start it off but nothing of note takes place. Once Tenryu gets in the ring, he starts off strong and him and Jumbo work on Choshu but eventually Khan and Choshu start to dominate Tenryu including a nasty kick from Khan to Tenryu’s face. Eventually, it comes down to Choshu-Jumbo and they trade huge blows but Jumbo tries to lariat Choshu but keeps getting blocked. When Choshu lariats Jumbo it sends him outside and Khan continues the dirty work by ramming him shoulder first in to the ring post. Along the way, Jumbo gets busted open and Khan attacks the cut. When Jumbo gets the hot tag, Tenryu attacks with his sumo fire. Khan meets him with the Mongolian chops tand both guys tag out so we get the Awesome Jumbo-Choshu matchup. Oh nice, Choshu catches Jumbo in the bearhug and drops him throat first on the top rope (I love when Jumbo gets dropped like that knowing the result of the Jumbo-Terry match). Choshu holds Jumbo down so Khan can bring the knee drops down and Khan-CHoshu win the match by countout because Jumbo is too beat up to make it back into the ring. Great match and Definite Nomination.

Childs, rewatch this. I rewatched tonight and fuck, this was sick. You know, we throw around terms like reckless abdnon and I was noticing the chops that Khan and Tenryu were trading adn they were pretty wild. I mean fuck, Jumbo was covered in blood and stretchered out. I may have loved this more the 2nd time around.

You don't have to convince me on that match. I included it on the must-have 1985-1989 list I sent you for Tenryu.

Killer Khan & Riki Choshu vs. Genichiro Tenryu & Jumbo Tsuruta (8/2/85)

 

This starts with Choshu and Jumbo still with the taped elbow and this matchup is always good but it was Tenryu who fired this one up as he started chopping the shit out of Choshu changing the pace of the match. Khan would then come in and started slapping Jumbo around which got the crowd going. Tenryu would soon get worked over by Choshu's Army with Jumbo trying to help but would get roughed up for his trouble. Jumbo would tag back in and the war was on with Choshu as he was using his injured arm for lariats but fought through the pain until eating a backdrop suplex by Choshu and a lariat would send him to the floor. Khan would then hit him with the ring bell and threw him shoulder first into the ringpost forcing him to juice which Khan would bite the cut. Jumbo's blood was flowing good here but Tenryu would come in where he went to war against Khan in a wild chop battle giving Jumbo enough time to regroup and while a crimson mask he was hitting his big moves on Choshu until he was doubled up then as Tenryu came in he ate a lariat while Jumbo rolled to the floor and was counted out. Choshu's Army celebrated like they won the Super Bowl in the ring which was awesome. Yeah this was really fun wild stuff and this is a easy nomination.