Posted May 4, 201015 yr comment_5450430 (taped 7.15.89) 5 - Ricky Fuyuki vs. Toshiaki Kawada - Good match but it mostly demonstrated the incredible gap in tools between Kawada and his partner. Fuyuki had pretty good timing and was a decent bumper/seller but was inferior to Kawada in every aspect of wrestling. So it was weird to watch Kawada carry the action and then lose by a roll-up. I think we have enough top-notch examples of these guys to leave this off. (taped 7.1.89) 6 - Mitsuo Momota vs. Joe Malenko (PWF Jr. Title) - Boy did they not click. Malenko wanted to work on the mat, but Momota just couldn't pull it off, so Joe ended up lying in holds more than he probably would have liked. Then, Momota tried to take it to the air and looked slow and awkward there as well. Malenko won the title here, but that was the only positive about the match. (taped 9.2.89) 7 - Shoehi Baba vs. Abdullah the Butcher - Both guys were so over that it wasn't as bad as you might think. They did the same things as they would've done in 1979, only at half the speed. No shot at the set but among weapon-wielding, maniac foreigners, I'll take Abby over Tiger Jeet Singh every day of the year.
September 17, 201015 yr comment_5455803 Ricky Fuyuki vs. Toshiaki Kawada (7/15/89) It's a battle of Footloose and I'm a sucker for matches between current tag partners. This was very fun at the start watching these guys try to read what the other one was doing since they knew each other so well. Fuyuki would paintbrush Kawada with a slap across the face so Kawada started firing kicks in bunches in response and the aggression has picked up. Kawada would work over Fuyuki but he would make a comeback and this had a nice little stretch run with Fuyuki getting a cradle cutback to get the win. Fun little match but not enough of a nomination. AJPW World Jr. Heavyweight Title: Mitsuo Momota © vs. Joe Malenko (7/1/89) This was definitely a styles clash as Malenko is a fluid mat worker which Momota really isn't and Momota is a more traditional style guy so they didn't really click at all here. They tried to have a good match but it didn't succeed although Joe did win the title. Giant Baba vs. Abdullah the Butcher (9/2/89) These two used to have some fun matches and while this had great crowd heat these guys were getting older and couldn't do everything they used to could do.
