AJPW Mix: Part 2

9/1/1990 Jumbo Tsuruta/Akira Taue vs Mitsuharu Misawa/Tsuyoshi Kikuchi

This was JIP, darn it! The 5:43 that I did see of this was awesome. Jumbo was in a bad mood and was going Stan Hansen lariating fools. Jumbo was super aggressive and fiery which is what I like. But, Kikuchi was even better. Kikuchi played up his strengths as being a smaller guy and went on small flurries to break up pins and moves. He was also super fast. He tried to get some moves on Taue but Taue used his power and size against him. Jumbo ended up winning here a little abruptly with a sleeper, just as the crowd was chanting Kikuchi.

Chalk up another for the case that Kikuchi should have been pushed more.

Rating: No rating. This was way too short but if I could see the rest, I know it's going to be mid 4-star range.

1/26/1992 Kenta Kobashi/Tsuyoshi Kikuchi vs Jumbo Tsuruta/Akira Taue
Starts off hot and heavy like you expect it would. At one point Kobashi had Taue in Boston Crab position and grumpy Jumbo kicked him and punched him until he let go. Kobashi then goes over to the corner, turns around Jumbo from behind and slaps him like a child. Greatness! Kikuchi did a stretch muffler on Taue which was unexpected. Kikuchi had Taue in a submission again and Jumbo came in to break it up. When Jumbo returned, Kikuchi gave him a nice forearm sending him into the barriers. Jumbo vs Kikuchi was mostly the theme of this and it rocked. Jumbo was really in rare form and he let Kikuchi have it about a thousand times over. Everyone was good in this and everyone played their role well. Rating: ****1/2

RWTL 1994 Toshiaki Kawada/Akira Taue (Holy Demon Army) vs Giant Baba/Stan Hansen
Old Man Baba threatens Kawada to start this off. Love it. Holy crap, Baba did a reversal sequence with Taue. Awesome! Kawada went teeing off on Baba at one point and even backdropped him. Hansen was great in this as Baba's buddy and Taue too seemed more inspired than usual. HDA controlled most of this match and at one point hit Baba with the backdrop/otoshi combo. This match was a great story of two vets just trying to survive. Later in the match, they almost had it then Taue made a great save for Kawada and evened up the score. Baba and Hansen eventually overcame them and Hansen won with a sicko lariat while Baba held down Taue. Great match. Baba and Hansen are such a fun team and Hansen is so underrated. Rating: ****1/2

12/3/1992 Andre the Giant, Giant Baba and Rusher Kimura vs Fuchi, Eigen and Okuma
 This was the last match of both Andre and Okuma. Andre looked completely finished here. This was about a month and a half before he died. He was massive at this point. This was pretty much all comedy but the parts with Andre were funny. It was mostly just guys standing around staring at each other. Rating: No Rating

6/1/1982 Giant Baba vs Stan Hansen
This is probably the fastest I've ever seen Giant Baba. He looked really good here. The crowd was totally into this and so was Hansen. This was the 80's though and the finished SUCKED. Hansen wins on a countout. Rating: **3/4

6/5/1989 - Sting vs Danny Spivey
This is from Sting's one and only AJPW tour. Sting and Spivey go at it before the names are even announced and brawl pretty hard. This started off really hot but then it progressively got worse. Maybe Sting tired himself out or something, but there were two deadweight move attempts where someone got dropped. I like my Ganso Bomb's as much as anyone else, but what they were doing was not quite the same. Sting did a sweet over the corner plancha. Sting went for the Scropion later on in the match and after one failed attempt, he failed again and Spivey cradled him for the win. This is a tough match to rate. Everything was there for a good match except the execution. They almost screwed the finish up as Sting didn't want to roll for the cradle, so he was left dangling for a few seconds. Rating: **

7/28/1993 - 4 vs. 4 SURVIVAL TAG MATCH: Kawada/Taue/Fuchi/Ogawa vs. Misawa/Kobashi/Akiyama/Kikuchi
This starts off with Akiyama/Kikuchi vs Ogawa/Fuchi. Fuchi did a brain-scrambling backdrop on the floor on Kikuchi. Fuchi then did some nasty looking stretches on Kikuchi on the ropes. Kikuchi ended up rolling up Ogawa to thankfully keep him from ruining the rest of the match. Next it was Akiyama/Kikuchi vs Fuchi/Taue. The next segment was the Taue show. He looked awesome and went on a chokeslamming spree which got him the win over Kikuchi. Akiyama/Kobashi vs Fuchi/Taue followed. The Fuchi/Kobashi sections were excellent. Fuchi went on a nice slapping spree on Kenta. Akiyama took out Fuchi with a bridge. Too bad as I could have watched Fuchi have fun on the faces expense all day. Kawada/Taue vs Akiyama/Kobashi was next.  Kawada did a new stretch on Jun that I never saw before. He had Jun in a sitting position and did double armlocks while leaning on Aki's head. Ouch. Kawada mostly toyed with Jun for the next 11 minutes until putting him down with the stretch plum. Next, Misawa/Kobashi vs Kawada/Taue. Okay, we all knew it was coming to this. The Kawada/Kobashi exchanges were alot of fun. Kobashi at one point kept chopping Kawada and Kawada just looked at him and said one more. Kobashi tried it a few more times to no effect, then Kawada gave it back to him and followed with the always fun Kawada right hook. Kobashi ended up winning win the moonsault. The last tag here was by far the best of the whole match. I am going to not rate this one as I don't know where to even start with it. I don't entirely reccomend it though except for the last section. That's where it was all built up to and that's the only part that really mattered.

3/11/1985 Road Warriors vs Giant Baba/Fuchi
The Road Warriors knocked over atleast 5 different japanese people on their way to the ring. That's always the sign of a good entrance. The RW's came out like a house of fire and made quick work of Baba and Fuchi. They also actually SOLD for these two. I'm sure it has nothing to do with the fact that Baba was signing their checks. Nice squash.

3/9/1985 - Giant Baba, Takashi Ishikawa, Mighty Inoue vs. Rusher Kimura, Goro Tsurumi, Ryuma Go
AJPW vs Indy Scum, the 1985 edition! Rusher took the flowers he received from the ring girls and threw it to Baba as he was coming in! HEEL.  Rusher then started a FLOWER FIGHT! YES! He threw two more at Baba before Ishikawa broke some over his head. Man, this opening was great. Streamers and flowers flying everywhere! This match was fast paced and alot of fun. Hey, they had me at Goro Tsurumi's haircut. Ishikawa won with the Scorpion and seemed quite pleased. Rating: ***

3/8/1985 - The Roadwarriors vs Animal Hamaguchi and Killer Khan
This is the Roadies debut here. No japanese were harmed during the making of their entrance this time. Animal Hamaguchi wore tights that matched the ring canvas! Sorry to disappoint the DVDVR Killer Khan contigent, but he didn't even get tagged in here. Squash City, Baby!

2/28/1985 Baba/Okuma/Kojika vs Goro Tsurumi/Rusher Kimura/Ryuma Go
We have more challengers for the Goro Tsurumi Best Hair challenge, but Goro is still able to defeat them with his afro. Who can stop the 'fro? Quickly, we got a no decision as the ref lost all control. Kimura choked out Baba.