Posted June 14, 201015 yr comment_5451952 DVD #6 March13：Japanese martial arts mansion (aired 3/15) Samson Fuyuki vs. Masanobu Kurisu - Just a clip really, but I'm all for little chunky dudes smacking each other around. Takashi Ishikawa vs. Kuniaki Kobayashi - JIP just as they went into the finishing run. The stuff that made tape featured some wild action and a hot crowd. But I didn't get a good enough sense of the overall match for it to merit consideration. Mighty Inoue vs. Killer Khan - This looked like fun stuff with Inoue using a lot of hit-and-run offense and Khan finally cutting him off with a big paw and using his knee drop to finish the little guy. But again, it was just a clip. Jumbo Tsuruta vs. Animal Hamaguchi - Reviewed on Classics. Tiger Mask vs. Riki Choshu - They came out grappling and Choshu got the better of it, setting up few minutes of pummeling on Misawa. Misawa teased a comeback, but Choshu cut him off with two brutal backdrop suplexes. Then Riki missed a lariat and Misawa launched his real comeback, capping it with a missile dropkick. The crowd was pretty psyched at that point but of course, Choshu regained the advantage quickly. Misawa got one last chance to show his spirit by enduring the scorpion for about two minutes. Choshu finally released the hold and put the youngster away with a vicious lariat. I'm on the fence with this one. It was exactly the match I expected them to have, and they clearly connected with the crowd. But it would have gone up a level or two if Misawa's comeback had been longer and featured another nearfall or two. I'll throw it on the block for you guys to take a look, but it won't bother me if it falls off in the end. If nothing else, it would make a nice addition to a Misawa comp as it might've been the only taped singles meeting between two megastars. March13：Japanese martial arts mansion (aired 3/22) Genichiro Tenryu vs. Yoshiaki Yatsu - Pros: They worked really hard and emptied their arsenals on one another in front of a hot crowd. The enzuigiri duel at the end was particularly cool. Cons: They clipped the first nine minutes of a 30-minute draw, so it's almost impossible to judge the match fairly. Besides, Tenryu and Yatsu didn't put a ton of thought into what they were doing. One guy did two or three moves. The other guy popped the crowd by kicking out and then hit his two or three moves. And around and around they went. I got no sense of strategy or how the action highlighted one guy's character vs. the other's. All in all, the cons were too substantial for me to nominate it. March10：Miyagi prefecture sport center(aired 3/22/86) NWAInternational・Heavyweight／Jumbo Tsuruta vs. Terry Gordy - They spent most of the match trading holds that didn't build to anything. Jumbo's finishing knee off the top looked pretty cool, but the crowd couldn't have cared less by then. Gordy did not have a good run on this tour, though Jumbo was just as much to blame for the drab effort.
