(taped 8.30.88) 1 - Stan Hansen/Tom Zenk vs. Abdullah the Butcher/Jimmy Snuka - I was intrigued to watch Hansen vs. Abby, but they didn't produce nearly enough craziness to make this interesting overall. Zenk was an odd fit with the others to say the least.

 

(taped 4.18.89) 2 - Ricky Fuyuki/Toshiaki Kawada vs. Dan Kroffaf/Tom Zenk (All Asian Tag Title) - Footloose and Kroffat produced some nifty offense (including a cattle mutilation by Kroffat) but with Zenk in place of Furnas, the magic of the later series was missing.

 

(taped 4.18.89) 3 - Stan Hansen vs. Jumbo Tsuruta (PWF/UN Titles vs. International Title) - This started slower than the 4/16 match with both guys trading holds and Hansen taking control. Of course, they got to the hateful brawling eventually, and I dug the action, especially Jumbo's nasty forearms to Hansen's ribs. But the ending, though clean, seemed suspect. Why would Jumbo need to take such a chickenshit win? It just seemed abrupt and not in the back-and-forth character of the match. I'm on the fence with this one. I liked it enough to lean yes for now, but if we want to drop a Hansen/Jumbo match, this might be my choice.

Abdullah the Butcher & "Superfly" Jimmy Snuka vs. Stan "The Lariat" Hansen & Tom Zenk (8/30/88)

 

Zenk is definitely the odd man in this match for sure as the other three are brawlers. Fun watching Hansen & Abby go at it but that's about it here.

 

All-Asian Tag Titles: Footloose (Ricky Fuyuki & Toshiaki Kawada) © vs. Dan Kroffat & Tom Zenk (4/18/89)

 

Kroffat & Zenk isn't Kroffat & Furnas chemistry wise but this is still a pretty good mach with Kroffat looking really good and Zenk holding his own against Footloose who were always good. They worked at a fast pace and it was a good match but this wasn't enough for a nomination.

 

NWA United National/PWF Heavyweight Titles: Stan "The Lariat" Hansen © vs. Jumbo Tsuruta (4/18/89)

 

They just had a classic brawl 2 days earlier so I gotta directly compare this one to that one. This had some hard strikes to start but then it deviated to a normal match for a while until the brawling would finally begin late in the match. Jumbo would work over Hansen's back enough that Hansen tries to leave but Jumbo would bring him back to the ring where we would get some good back and forth action with Jumbo juicing after going to the floor. Hansen would use a steel chair on Jumbo twice before returning to the ring where he would continue his attack before missing a lariat hitting the ropes and falling backwards with Jumbo covering him for the win which created the Triple Crown. This was a very different match from 4/16 but this was still a great match and a historical match because it created the Triple Crown. This is a definite nomination.