Posted June 17, 201015 yr comment_5452089 DVD #9 April19：Hyogo prefectural cultural gymnasium (aired 4/26/86) NWAInternational・Heavyweight/AWAHeavyweight／ Jumbo Tsuruta vs. Stan Hansen - Reviewed on Classics. April26：Omiya skating center (aired 4/26/86) UN Heavyweight Genichiro Tenryu vs. Ted Dibiase - Reviewed on Classics. Jumbo/Ishikawa/Tiger Mask vs. . Hiro Saito/SS Machine/Shunji Takano - Scant clip. AWA Heavyweight /PWFHeavyweight Stan Hansen vs. Riki Choshu - The episode ended mid-match but they showed the conclusion the following week. Choshu started out working Stan's arm and Stan went after Choshu's leg. Then they switched as the match went on. They mixed touches of brawling into the groundwork which gave it an appealing sense of struggle. But then they moved abruptly to a finish that had nothing to do with the body of the match. Choshu took Hansen out of the ring with a so-so- lariat. He had Stan set up for another lariat against the post, but Stan countered with a boot and hit his own lariat that carried them into the crowd. Neither guy beat the count. It was a cool way to set up a double countout but overall, they did a poor job of building from one segment to the next. So the match left me unsatisfied despite featuring plenty of good stuff. May2：Korakuen Hall (aired 5/3/86) Riki Choshu vs. Shunji Takano - Takano got in one burst of offense but Choshu quickly decided he'd had enough of that and took it home with a lariat and scorpion. It's funny. Choshu made his bones by rebelling against the hierarchy, but he was as rigid as anybody about not selling too much for guys ranked below him. Jumbo Tsuruta vs. Super Strong Machine - This started as typical Jumbo vs. midcarder, but SSM upped the ante by landing some nasty right hands and a piledriver. So Jumbo had to up his game, and he hit some brutal lariats and piledrivers. I was a little surprised that SSM kept kicking out and rallied to get some nearfalls. They had me thinking nomination until Hiro Saito grabbed Jumbo's foot and SSM hit him with a chair to get DQed. It just seemed like a nonsensical act for a guy who had played gritty underdog for the whole match.
