Posted June 13, 201015 yr comment_5451926 DVD #5 March1：Akita prefectural gymnasium (aired 3/1/86) Genichiro Tenryu vs. Terry Gordy - Tenryu started out controlling Gordy in a headlock, which sucked the life out of the crowd. When Gordy gained the upper hand, he built his attack around a figure four. Tenryu sold well while he was in it but did stupid shit like hitting an enzuigiri and running the ropes immediately after he escaped. They did some neat stuff during the last few minutes, including a Thesz press off the top from Tenryu. But then they went to a double countout. Between that and the sluggish early segments, this was a disappointment. Jumbo Tsuruta vs. Tiger Jeet Singh - Singh hit Jumbo with a chair before they ever got in the ring. Once they got down to actual wrestling, Jumbo dominated. Then, Singh got himself disqualified by using the sword. Just a nothing segment. Yoshiaki Yatsu/Riki Choshu vs. Ashura Hara/RUSHER KIMURA - Kimura and Hara mauled Yatsu with a bunch of headbutts, lariats and a spike piledriver. Yatsu eventually headbutted his way out of trouble, and he and Choshu hit a receipt piledriver as soon as he made the hot tag. The match seemed headed somewhere good at that point, so of course, they cut to commercials and then credits without ever showing the finish. Damn, I'm starting to hate this season of TV. March4：Osaka castle hall (aired 3/8/86) Tiger Mask vs. The Great Kabuki - Misawa dominated with his typical offense, but the ref abruptly called for the bell after he came up way short on a plancha. It looked like he hurt his face, and I guess that's why the ref ended it?? NWAInternational・ tag Yatsu/Riki Choshu vs. Tenryu/JUMBO TSURUTA - They started with a few minutes of feeling out. Choshu and Yatsu eventually seized the advantage with some strong work on Tenryu's midsection. Tenryu tagged out a bit casually considering the punishment. That led to a solid section of back-and-forth action between Jumbo and Choshu with Choshu getting the better of it after a double clothesline spot. Choshu put Jumbo in the scorpion, and I thought it was neat when Yatsu dropped a top-rope elbow on Tsuruta in that position. The match turned again when Tenryu ran in to save Jumbo and hurt Choshu's ribs. As usual, Riki got the crowd behind him with some nice selling of fighting through the pain. The ending melee feature strong action as well, with Tenryu using an enzuigiri to save Jumbo from a Yatsu suplex only for Choshu to bolt in and lariat Jumbo. Then they went to the double countout. I could see someone nominating this, but they borrowed a lot of themes and even specific spots from their previous two matches, and both of those had definitive, crowd-pleasing finishes. So I'm going to leave this one on the shelf.
