Dutch Mantell v Abdullah the Butcher (2/27/88)
This was more like the Dutch you want. In the Gran Guera matches sort of hung back and stayed out the way, but he was obviously a central focus in this. Abby jumps him at the bell and slams him on the table, then the fork comes out and Dutch is cut open a few minutes in. Abby chucks him out the ring and Dutch happens to land beside the guy who's holding Shoo Baby, so of course Dutch gets back in and lets loose with the whip. DQ finish probably isn't surprising (Hugo on commentary suggests it won't be surprising to Abby either, but he's never cared about such things anyway), but I love Chicky passing Abby a coat-hanger and Abby using it to try and strangle Mantell. I was hoping for a short, fun brawl out of these two and that's what I got.
Rock 'n' Roll Express v Bobby Jaggers & Dan Kroffat (3/19/88)
Total RnR formula match, but I love RnR formula and this was a really nifty iteration of it. All of the early shine was good and we got to see Dan Kroffat bump and stooge in ways we never did in All Japan. He still has the cool offence too, like a big giant swing and a weird Doomsday Device thing that was basically just a lariat off the second turnbuckle. Jaggers has some nice bumps off of back body drops and it felt like we got a better handle of how good he was in this than the Youngbloods strap match. He runs distractions and knows how to work a crowd, cuts off Morton, stooges and was generally pretty fun. Morton juicing gave his heat segment a little extra bite as well, because you had Jaggers and Kroffat punching him in the cut and ramming him into the post. I liked this a bunch, but then you could stick pretty much any two wrestlers in there with Morton and Gibson and I'd likely enjoy it.
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