Posted June 6, 201015 yr comment_5451657 All Japan Pro Wrestling (September 3 & September 10 1989) 1. Shane Douglas & Johnny Ace vs Dan Kroffat & Doug Furnas - JIP. The crowd really dug some of the Ace/Douglas double teams, particularly one on which Ace held the top rope down, and allowed Douglas to vault over it for a plancha. There were a few other cool moments. Kroffat did one of the neatest versions of "skin the cat" I've seen, going through the middle rope feet first at full speed and flipping back over the top almost as quickly. I also liked Ace taunting Furnas by holding his hands way above the shorter guy's head when they teased a test of strength. Despite those bits of fun, they didn't do a very good job of building the match to meaningful moments. So it's not something I'll push for. 2. Terry Gordy & Todd Champion vs Abullah the Butcher & Tiger Conway Jr - Abby/Gordy was the only match-up that interested me, and they didn't deliver nearly enough of it. 3. Genichiro Tenryu & Toshiaki Kawada vs Yoshiaki Yatsu & Jumbo Tsuruta - Interesting structure in that they maintained some suspense over which guys would end up in peril. Kawada was still selling his rib injury, and Jumbo and Yatsu unleashed hell on his midsection. But he tagged out before they could really render him useless. Then Tenryu beat the shit out of Yatsu, and it seemed like he might be the first one to break down but no, he tagged out to Jumbo. Just when it seemed the match would be a race between who would give out first between Kawada and Yatsu, Jumbo vs. Tenryu took center stage. The key thing was that the action and quality of wrestling stayed at a high level throughout. In the end, Kawada attempted a cross body only for Yatsu to catch him and turn it into a powerslam, Buzz Sawyer style. So it really was a Yatsu vs. Kawada story after all. This wasn't as exciting as their Feb. match, which I loved, but they delivered 20 minutes of high-end violence with constant suspense over how the match would go and a nifty finish. Solid nomination. 4. Giant Baba vs Abdullah the Butcher - Basically, Baba wanted to knock Abby down with a heavy blow and submit him with an armbar. Abby wanted to knock Baba down with a quick thrust to the throat and try his elbow drop at the first opportunity. Pretty simple formula, and of course, neither guy brought any speed or grace to the table. But the crowd hung on every move. Abby got frustrated when he couldn't beat Baba with the elbow drop and resorted to the weapon in his trunks. So Baba bled and kicked out after a bunch more elbow drops. He finally caught Abby's leg and dropped him in a suplex-type move that didn't look very good, because, you know, he didn't have a prayer of lifting Abby. But that led to the pin. I'm torn on this one because it was an example of how two guys could captivate a crowd without being able to rely on athleticism at all. On the other hand, some of the sequences really did look shitty. Hell, you guys take a look. 5. Terry Gordy vs Genichiro Tenryu - Gordy came out bent on destroying Tenryu. He powerbombed him when the ring was still full of streamers, and followed up with lariats, knee drops, punches, a DDT, you name it. I liked how hard Tenryu fought every time Gordy went for a second powerbomb. He really put over the move. On the other hand, I thought his rallies were too short. The longer Gordy stayed in control, the less interested the crowd seemed. I mean, Tenryu wasn't Rey Mysterio. The people wanted to see him go shot for shot, not tease comebacks and get cut off over and over. They didn't get excited again until he rallied for real and put Gordy away with multiple powerbombs. It was neat how the whole match turned on one move; they just picked a structure that lost the crowd for most of the way. I can't nominate a match like that, even though it featured some strong points.
