Posted May 31, 201015 yr comment_5451464 All Japan Pro Wrestling (May 7 & May 14 1989) 1. Mitsuo Momota vs Shinnichi Nakano - They worked pretty hard on the mat, but the crowd did not give a shit. Once they moved to a faster pace, the action lost its direction. Momota did a few neat things, including a counter into a Russian leg sweep and the roll-up that got him the win. But this was unremarkable overall. Unless Nakano was getting his ass kicked by heavyweights, he was fairly useless. 2. Jumbo Tsuruta vs Genichiro Tenryu - This had some awesome moments. Early on, Tenryu broke clean along the ropes, and Jumbo stared him down. So Tenryu slapped him as if to say, "I will never be your bitch again!" Later Tenryu hit an awesome fucking tope. But Jumbo killed the intensity a bit by holding a long sleeper, and before they could get it all the way back, he dropped Tenryu on his head in a botched powerbomb. The ending move was sick and helped set up their 6/5/89 classic. So this should be a good choice for the extras. It has no place on the voting part of the set. 3. Mitsuo Momota vs Johnny Smith - They actually did an okay job of setting up Smith as the athletic powerhouse and Momota as the more skilled, resourceful veteran. That dynamic worked well enough to get the crowd into the match. The end got pretty sloppy, but I enjoyed this more than expected. No enough to nominate it, however. 4. Dynamite Kid & Davey Boy Smith vs Dan Kroffat & Doug Furnas - They started with their usual duel of superathletic spots, which the crowd was way into. I think Dynamite tweaked his spine on a superplex, because he didn't move as well or bump as much after. The match actually lost steam as it went on and fell away from being a possible nomination. That's fine. I think this feud will be represented on the set by the 6-man I nominated, 5. Toshiaki Kawada & Fuyuki vs Yoshiaki Yatsu & Great Kabuki - JIP with Footloose beating the shit out of Yatsu. Kawada looked great in this match, which was becoming a trend. He had this great way of throwing his whole body into lariats, which he stopped when he took on the more stoic persona. He also broke up a pin with a cool running double stomp. The crowd was into the back-and-forth action, but the match ended semi-abruptly on a Yatsu suplex. Given the cut, this struck me more as a fun highlight of that week's TV than something for the set. 6. Jumbo Tsuarta & George Takano vs Dan Spivey & Dick Slater - Reviewed on Classics.
