Section 1- Results
All Japan: Suwama, Hayashi, and Akebono & Kea all retained on the 24th. Hayashi is now up to an incredible 16 defenses.
Dragon Gate: Pac retained over Kness, and Doi’s new heel group won the trios titles (though he isn’t in said trio),
New Japan: Very much a ‘parity booking’ mindset thus far in the tag tournament. Beer Money beat Bernard & Anderson in a non-title match.
NOAH: KENTA & Aoki won the junior tag tournament.
Section 2- News
Dragon Gate: Yokosuka & Kness defend against Gamma and a mystery partner on the 23rd. Pac defends against Dragon Kid the same night.
New Japan: Ibushi & Omega defend the junior tag titles against Devitt & Taguchi on the 14th, at a DDT show.
NOAH: Kanemaru & Tiger Mask defend against KENTA & Aoki on the 23rd.
Section 2a- Meltzer News
All Japan: They only drew 700 for the latest Korakuen show. Mutoh is only working part-time because of his injury. Tiger Mask 5, Sayama’s trainee, made his debut in All Japan. (Not from Meltzer, but supposedly it’s wrestling/MMA crossover Minowaman).
HUSTLE: The smaller re-start promotion is doing so bad that they had to give away a lot of tickets just to get an attendance of 550.
New Japan: They drew 6000 for the Sumo Hall show, an acceptable number.
NOAH: The 5500 attendance for the last Budokan was heavily papered. Ouch.
Section 3- I Shill Your Every Word
Reneke’s fingers are probably still sore after writing this. So many words. SO MANY.
Section 4- Media Corner
I Love the ‘90s Part 10: All Japan’ 1990 Year-End Blowout
This might well be the largest update of the series, because of all the matches previously covered and the inclusion of a ‘make-up’ match because I posted Tenryu vs Isao Takagi twice in the early installments.
Previously covered several matches:
-Jumbo vs Kobashi, August 31st
-Jumbo vs Misawa, September 1st (new link!)
-Misawa & Kawada vs Jumbo & Taue, September 30th (new link!)
-Jumbo, Taue & Fuchi vs Misawa, Kawada & Kobashi, October 19th
-Misawa & Kawada vs Jumbo & Taue, December 7th
Jumbo, Taue & Fuchi vs Misawa, Kawada & Kikuchi, All Japan August 18th 1990.
While the May 26th 6-man is more famous and important, this one really sets the tone for how the feud would progress. The roles they play, the flow and style of the bout, it’s all there. I’ve watched enough puro from enough eras that I feel confident in saying that this is the first time a Japanese promotion was able to consistently produce good 6-man tags. In the ‘80s there were always problems with non-finishes and/or scrub wrestlers.
Misawa, Kawada & Kikuchi vs Taue, Fuchi & Mighty Inoue vs, All Japan August 31st 1990.
Lead-in to Jumbo vs Misawa II, and it sets up what logically should have been a Misawa trademark (but got dropped). There’s even some debate over whether the finish was botched due to a legit knockout!
The Fantastics vs Joe Malenko & Kikuchi, All Japan September 1st 1990.
Meltzer wildly overrated this at the time because of the highspots. It’s still fun, though! Twenty years later, both Kikuchi and Joe have made return visits to All Japan. Both Fantastics are alive, meaning nobody in a tag match is dead. That, sadly, is not a common thing to find anymore.
Misawa & Kawada vs Kobashi & Ace, All Japan November 21st 1990.
The Kobashi/Ace unit is an interesting one. They were regular partners, but never in 6-mans since Kobashi was part of Misawa’s unit and Ace went with other Americans. They continued through late ’91, and eventually re-formed in mid ’97. I don’t know what the reasoning behind it was. Anyway, at this point they’re the All Asia champs, taking on the beltless but much higher-ranked Misawa/Kawada tandem. Ace made big strides as a worker in his first few All Japan tours, but the show belongs to the other three.
Gordy & Williams vs Misawa & Kawada, All Japan December 1st 1990.
Remember that thing I just said about having everyone in a match still alive? This is why. Anyway, this tournament had quite a loaded upper half: Gordy/Williams, Misawa/Kawada, The Funks, Baba/Andre, Jumbo/Taue, and Hansen/Spivey. At this point neither team could afford to lose any points, but it was doubly so for Misawa and Kawada, who at this stage struggled badly against US powerhouses. Gordy & Williams had good matches with a number of opponents, but I’ve always felt they match up best with Misawa & Kawada.
Next Time: Probably the second part of my puroresu primer
