Another match that vastly exceeded my expectations. I feel like I'm watching this disc on ecstasy or something. Every shot in this one seemed to land full force and on the button. I figured Kawada would take all the punishment and Tenryu would win in the end. But no. As soon as Tenryu stepped in the ring, Takano nailed him in the chops with a dropkick and Tenta followed with a nasty belly-to-back suplex. Kawada turned in some great sequences trying to chop Tenta down. He hit a particularly vicious spinning kick to the big man's throat. He and Tenryu also landed a cringe-inducing double high kick to the head. Takano landed some sick kicks as well. I wouldn't say the match had real story focus. The teams just traded violent control segments with partners breaking up a bunch of attempted pins. But they had the crowd rocking and rolling. This is another nomination.

 

1989 All-Japan TV Disc 1

Genichiro Tenryu & Toshiaki Kawada vs John Tenta & Shunji Takano, AJ TV 1/5/89 (TV1)

- Tenta is looking more like Earthquake here. Takano and Earthquake abuse both guys with Tenta giving a nice belly-to-bely to Tenryu but Tenryu fights back and Kawada kicks the shit out of him. Kawada fucks up and tries to lift him s o Tenta shows him how a bodyslam is supposed to be executed. Takano comes in with a nice knee from the top and Tenta and Takano are making a nice team with Kawada as Native in Peril. Seriously, I wish Tenta would have wrestled like this in his Earthquake run. Maybe I need to revisit his USA run. Tenta hooks Kawada in a Boston crab and I can only imagine if Tenta decided to sit down on it. Tenryu breaks it up enough for Kawada to get over to his corner and tag in Tenryu. Tenryu knocks him down with a HUGE lariat… more like an axe bomber. HE then fucks up by tagging in Kawada who got his ass kicked the entire match but Kawada shows more fight this time around. Tenta ends up on the floor so Tenryu uses the time to hit him with a chair and ram him in the barricade. Inside, Tenryu uses the time to capitalize but Tenta chokelifts him and both guys tag in their partners. Then in the coolest spot ever, Kawada gives Takano a spin kick as Tenryu gives him an enziguiri. It was like Double Elimination but both guys kicking the head. Tenryu runs into Takano but Takano’s boot meets Tenryu’s face. Fuck, so much cool shit going on here. Tenryu tries t hit the powerbomb but Takano kicks him in the head while upside down. Now, Tenta uses fatman power on Tenryu but some kicks to the gut slow him down. Kawada and Tenryu double team Tenta who is saved by Takano. Tenryu goes to the top, looks like Tenta is going to press slam him but Tenryu gets a small package and the pin. FUCK! This was motherfucking awesome. When the set is done in a year, I gave my typical shitty play by play to remind me of the match but I won’t forget it because so much cool shit was going on. SLAM DUNK NOMINATION!!!

 

Just a side note, three matches in and I couldn’t ask for a better Father’s Day

Toshiaki Kawada & Genichiro Tenryu vs. Shunji Takano & John Tenta (1/2/89)

 

Takano is a guy that I've dug throughout this and Tenta has been fun so this has potential. Tenryu always wants to kill Takano but he ate a serious dropkick leading to Tenta coming in and Revolution working him over until Kawada wants to try to pick him up which failed. Kawada then takes punishment before Tenryu would start fighting with Tenta where they traded hard strikes. This really picked up with some fun exchanges with Kawada & Takano and Tenta & Tenryu leading to a hot stretch run with Korakuen really into the action and a cool finish. This match was very fun and deserves to move forward.