AJPW 1/28/86 Match #1 IWA Heavyweight Title Match Champion Mill Mascarsas vs Kuniaki Kobayashi I hate to complain about a legend, but I gotta tell you I feel like Mascaras basically had the same match with different opponents over and over! Same formula here. Match starts with great move and counter move wrestling. Just flawless work by both early on. Then Kobayashi uses a chair outside to get the advantage. They brawl well. They both get in some high spots)Kobayashi hit a crossbody between the ropes to the outside that was so effortless it was crazy). The brawl continues until the eventual double count out! Mascaras is madding because his work is good but the pattern is so damn easy to call! All that said no doubt it worked for him!
Match #2 The Great Kabuki vs Tiger Mask This bout felt more like one from Charlotte than Japan. Match started very slowly with Kabuki working on the arm of Tiger mask like he was a long lost Anderson brother! For 8 or 9 minutes of a 18 minute bout he really punished the arm with armbar after armbar he broke out the ole short arm scissors for a stretch in the match. This never really got boring, for me anyway, because Kabuki was constantly smacking Tiger on the back of the head screaming in very loud English "ASK HIM" and "GIVE UP"! The bout confused me a bit because as the heel Kabuki out wrestled Tiger. Then Tiger got the advantage by using a chair. (odd thing for a face to do without provocation) He manages to hit a great dropkick on Kabuki, who ends up outside after Tiger ducked a charge and Kabuki went sailing over the tope rope. Tiger grabs the ropes and hits a nice Plancha. Then he grabs a chair from over the barrier and smashes Kabuki three times with it. They get back in the ring an as Kabuki shoves Tiger into the ropes off a headlock the ref gets caught and takes a bump outside! Kabuki hits a suplex and goes up top a delivers his flying thrust/chop to the throat. No ref to count the fall. The young boys on the floor manage to get the ref back in the ring. At that same moment Tiger hits a German suplex with a bridge(Kabuki had gotten up from the pin to see where the ref was Tiger snuck up behind him). The ref crawls in and starts the count, one of the young boys(I don't know his name jumps in the ring and kicks Tiger in the ribs breaking up the pin. He is explaining to the official that Kabuki had the pin 1st.Tiger gets up super hot(makes sense)and shoves the kid. They start to brawl Kabuki gets punched by this kid and now we get a three way pier six brawl! I assume the match was thrown out! I never in my life expected what this match was, but I will not forget it for some time!
Match #3 NWA International Tag team title bout, The Champs Jumbo Tsurta/Tenryu face the challenge of Yoshiaki Yatsu/Riki Choshu! (good God this might make the last match look tame!) Match begins with neither team getting real control for several minutes. The feeling out process ramped up a bit when twice on rope breaks Yatsu slaps the taste out of Tsuruta's mouth. Jumbo gives it back to Yatsu on the next rope break, slapping him twice. Tenryu takes the tag back in, Choshu and Yatsu get a quick upper hand and execute their spike piledriver on him. Tenryu manages to regain his bearings and scoops Choshu's leg turning a step-over toe hold into a figure four. Choshu's counter was something I have never seen before. He Manages to roll Tenryu while still in the figure four to his corner of the ring where Yatsu drops an elbow of the top rope to break the hold! A very unique counter. Yatsu makes the tag, throws Tenryu in the the corner who explodes out and Yatsu eats a lariat. Jumbo comes in legally and drives Yatsu outside with two knees right to the pit of the stomach. Yatsu gets back in and hits a great dropkick on Tsuruta. Choshu takes the tag and he and Jumbo chop the hell out of each other(open handed). Jumbo takes over when he hits his flying high knee(Choshu had come into the bout with one side of rib cage/belly all taped up.) After the knee Jumbo precedes to stomp the every loving shit out of that taped area. Choshu hits a back suplex but that just hurts his ribs even more. He and Jumbo both hit lariats on the other at the same time. Tsuruta manages to tag Tenryu who continues the pounding. They just beat on him till my ribs/side hurt! Tsuruta puts him in an Abdominal Stretch, Yatsu can take no more of his partner's agony. He comes of the top with a double axehandle on Tsuruta breaking the hold. Choshu makes the tag and pulls himself outside on the apron. Tenryu sees this goes over and pulls Choshu to the floor pounds him, pick him up whips him into the barricade back first, then picks up a chair from ringside and smashes into the side/back of the prone writhing Choshu! (note to self never ever piss off Tenryu!) Meanwhile in the ring, Yatsu has Jumbo in a spinning toe hold. Tenryu Runs in and gives Yatsu a backsuplex. Jumbo gets back to his feet and hits two lariat's in a row on Yatsu. ( The crowd is going apeshit for every bit of this, these people are in it!) Choshu has risen from the dead by this time and makes the tag! Jumbo take a dropkick and then Choshu slaps on the Scorpion Death Lock. Tsuruta struggles to escape. He finally does, Choshu just falls out of the hold in pain clutching at those ribs again. Tsuruta overpowers Yatsu and makes the tag to Tenryu. He comes in and hits a slingshot suplex(the crowd was in awe of this for a moment, I guess Tully Blanchard never made a tour of Japan). Jumbo tags back in, Yatsu nails him with the Baba "Neckbreaker Drop" or "the Hook in Ladder clothesline if you like. Then a bulldog headlock. Yatsu kicks him out of the ring where Choshu pick him up and slams his head/shoulder to the post three times! Tenryu sprints over and whips Choshu into the barricade. In the ring Yatsu gives a bloddy Jumbo a piledriver a backsuplex and puts on his own Scorpion Death Lock. Jumbo looks done so quiet unassuming Tenryu comes in and runs back and forth across the ring picking up so much momentum that when he hits Yatsu with a bone crunching lariat he almost goes out between the ropes! Tsuruta Makes the tag hits Yatsu with his headkick and backsuplex Choshu breaks up both pin attempts. Jumbo jumps in the fray and he hurls Choshu to the floor and follows him to continue the brawl. In the Ring Tenryu lands a second head kick and goes for a lariat, Yatsu ducks and hit the best overhead German Suplex I may have ever seen! This seems like the finish(the crowd sure as hell thought it was).They popped like crazy when Tenryu kicked out at two! It looks like Yatsu has it won again when he counters a bodyslam attempt with a beautiful small package for another incredible two count! Yatsu runs off the ropes but Tenryu counters with the "hot shot" (throat across the tope rope). Tenryu hits him with a 3rd head kick, and a powerbomb and this epic, five-star bout is over! With a hard fought grueling title defense by Tenryu and Tsuruta!
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