January 2nd and 3rd

1/2/86 AJPW Tiger Mask VS Mill Mascaras (not a bad way to start day 2 of this blog I gotta say.) I'll go out on a limb here a predict this will be better than anything I wrote about yesterday! This was a matchup of two of the great masked personas of all-time.I used that word because Tiger Mask the character was different men at different times! Under the mask at this point Mitsuharu Misawa! Simply one of the best to ever lace his boots! He was still six months away from his 22nd birthday when this match took place!
   His opponent on the other hand was the most well-known Lucha competitor ever in both North America and Japan."The man of a thousand Masks"(He would wear one mask into the ring then dramatically take it off,with another underneath).He became a worldwide draw in the 60's and 70's due in large measure to the Wrestling publications.I think you could count on you hands the number of times he had his shoulders pinned to the mat,he had a reputation for being unwilling to sell for his opponent with matches usually ending in double DQ'S or double count outs!
     This match ended sadly like so many others with a rather clunky looking double count out after 15 minutes! On the bright side,both guys did some great mat work with submissions early. The finish felt forced,but worth seeing just for the clash of eras!
    Same Card Genichiro Tenryu/Jumbo Tsuruta Vs Nikita Koloff and Krusher Khruschev.I gotta say that Scott Simpson(Koloff) and Barry Darsow(Khrusher) coming to the ring with the Russian Anthem blaring made me laugh! Basic tag bout,heel power spots early,Nikita ran across the ring screaming trying to smash Jumbo in the corner.Thank God he moved he might have been killed(Koloff could move for his size)green as he was his scary factor was strong! The russians were dq'd after about 15 minutes for using the Russian chain(what makes a chain Russian anyway? .....Note to self Must ask Meltzer on twitter.)to clothesline both Japanese.not horrible but no lasting memories either!
    1/3/86 NJPW Akira Maeda vs Nobuhiko Takada To a 2017 fan this looks very little like pro wrestling,it is much closer in tone and style to MMA(I love MMA so not a problem for me) Takada and Maeda would go on to have many stellar worked shoot-style bouts several years later in the UWFI promotion! They were young boys here but you can see talent and skill on display witch both men had in abundance! Great submission work by both.Maeda won by submission in a little over ten minutes, with a single-leg Boston Crab.