It's been a minute since I've watched any iterations of this match up. Unsurprisingly it was good and did not feel like a waste of twenty minutes. This is the strength and conditioning coach in me talking but I always love how Hansen propels himself horizontally across the ground when he's going for a shoulder tackle. First rule of thumb for acceleration. A lot of the football-players-turned-wrestlers do it and I have no evidence to support this but I bet it's especially prevalent in those that played college football in the south. Anyhow, Hansen had a couple great shoulder tackles in this, though the meat of the match was a rare sight at Hansen in peril. He had a big slab of tape on his back so Jumbo and Yatsu said to hell with these cheapshotting fucks, ripped the tape off and went to town. It's not the role we're used to seeing him in, but I think he's super compelling as this force of nature that's been wounded and having to fight uphill for a change. I also loved how, when he finally managed to swing the tide long enough to tag out, he made a point of stomping on Jumbo's head before actually making that tag. The Tenryu/Jumbo exchanges were immaculate and every time they so much as looked at each other it was electric. Right out the gate Tenryu takes a swing at Jumbo while the latter is on the apron and Jumbo turns to the crowd like "here we fucking go again with this prick." He retaliates with a big boot shortly after it and how Tenryu's head stayed on is a mystery. Jumbo in peril down the stretch is good stuff as well, and even if the finishing run isn't epic in scale it had a few killer moments, the best being Hansen obliterating Yatsu as he tried to bulldog Tenryu. I assume our television producer was fired on the spot for missing the finishing lariat, but otherwise this was more or less what you wanted it to be.
Genichiro Tenryu & Ricky Fuyuki v Jumbo Tsuruta & Great Kabuki (All Japan, 10/22/89) - GREAT
This had your classic All Japan hierarchy tag structure, only with a little WAR thrown in (or at least a precursor to WAR). Tenryu v Jumbo is yet again spectacular. Tenryu is the most antagonistic bastard walking and I love how Jumbo rises above it time and again. Tenryu slaps him across the ear before we've even established who's starting the match and Jumbo simply asks Kabuki to step onto the apron, rubs his hands together and lets the match begin like this is a civilised affair. And of course when he inevitably snaps it's a fucking tornado and Tenryu gets thrown into everything in a six mile radius. Kabuki was our punching bag for the evening here and even got himself a little colour to boot. Tenryu kicked lumps out of him, booted him in the spleen and chopped him in the throat. Fuyuki is always a fun scrappy wee bastard. He was still lean and practically a junior heavyweight at this point, not yet the pot-bellied ghoul he'd become, but he was never afraid to mix it up despite being uppercutted under the chin. As a match dynamic with four guys this good you were always getting something quality. This was quality.
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