(taped 6.10.88) 4 - Kabuki vs. Rip Rogers - Rogers worked exotico and the crowd was really into his pre-match schtick, which included combing his hair, kissing the ref and doing Rockette-style high kicks. Unfortunately, he dropped most of the affectations once the match began, and he and Kabuki didn't click as well in a straight wrestling sense. So this ended up as an entertaining segment but not something I'd put on the set.

 

(taped 5.24.88) 5 - Ricky Fuyuki/Toshiaki Kawada vs. Ricky Morton/Robert Gibson - I was surprised how over Morton and Gibson were with the Japanese fans. The match was going fine but ended rather suddenly on an arbitrary double countout. Disappointing.

 

(taped 4.15.88) 6 - Tenryu vs. Bruiser Brody (PWF/UN Titles) - I was concerned when I realized they'd be going 30 minutes and sure enough, they made it feel like 60 with a bunch of holds that led to nothing. Tenryu focused on Brody's leg, which would have been fine if Brody had been willing to sell the damage. Alas not. The crowd got pretty excited when Tenryu hit his big offense at the end but that wasn't enough to redeem this slop. Oh and why the fuck would Tenryu power bomb Brody on the floor when he was trying to win the title? Stupid ending to a stupid match.

The Great Kabuki vs. "Hustler" Rip Rogers (6/10/88)

 

Rogers got over pretty big in his runs in Japan with his quasi gay gimmick. He did Adrian Street's act before the match with some differences and Budokan was going nuts for this. This was great fun as we saw both men do Fargo struts and Rip doing the Daniel LaRusso crane kick setup with the crowd loving it. The match wasn't that good but we gotta include the Rip Rogers act somewhere on the set as an extra.

 

Footloose (Samson Fuyuki & Toshiaki Kawada) vs. The Rock n Roll Express (Robert Gibson & Ricky Morton) (5/24/88)

 

The fans were heavy into R&R here as I guess they watched World Pro Wrestling. This would've been a fun feud in like Memphis or Continental around this time as they had good chemistry. Morton would even work FIP and the fans got into his hope spots then Gibson got the hot tag and it led to the 4-way brawl that eventually went to the floor for a double countout. This was fun action but not a nomination sadly.

 

NWA United National/PWF Heavyweight Titles vs. NWA International Heavyweight Title: Genichiro Tenryu © vs. Bruiser Brody © (4/15/88)

 

This is a unification match. Brody was in old school Brody mode here regarding selling as Tenryu tried to work over his leg in between dominating on offense. The fans were into Tenryu's big comeback here but this went too long for a Brody match in 1988 and the finish was bad as expected. Not a nomination.