Posted June 3, 201015 yr comment_5451545 All Japan Pro Wrestling (July 9 & July 16 1989) 1. Akira Taue vs Shunji Takano - Sluggish, sloppy, forgettable. 2. Fantastics vs Kenta Kobashi & Masa Fuchi - Two talented teams, and they produced some good looking offense. But this never took on any kind of coherent plot. 3. Jumbo Tsuruta, Yoshiaki Yatsu & Great Kabuki vs Stan Hansen, Genichiro Tenryu & Fuyuki - I loved Kabuki's uppercuts in this match. He went toe-to-toe with Tenryu and Hansen in strike exchanges and actually won! Sadly, the overall match never took off. Was it about Jumbo wanting to get his hands on Tenryu? Tenryu baiting Jumbo by punishing his partners? Fuyuki's resilience? It was sort of about all those things but not really about any. That lack of focus led to a cold crowd. They barely reacted when Jumbo snapped and beat the shit out of Tenryu late in the match. No vote. 4. Joe Malenko vs Dean Malenko - Reviewed on Classics. 5. Stan Hansen & Genichiro Tenryu vs Jumbo Tsuruta & Yoshiaki Yatsu - Yatsu was about to challenge for Tenryu's title, so they made him look strong. He absolutely drilled Tenryu and Hansen with forearms in the first half and had them reeling. The match turned when Jumbo overshot Tenryu on a knee drive and flipped to the floor, where he hurt his ankle. Tenryu and Hansen went after the ankle for the rest of the match, with Yatsu busting in to save his partner over and over. Logical booking, sure, but the crowd just didn't want to see Yatsu rescuing Jumbo. Without strong reactions to the central plot, the match fell flat. Hansen pinned Jumbo clean after a lariat, which should've seemed like a big deal but didn't. The match wasn't bad, or anything; it's just another one that failed to stand out in a great year.
