ALL JAPAN ON NTV

February 5, 1990 (taped 1/24/90 and 1/25/90)

Isao “Arashi” Takagi . . . decides he’s had enough of Tenryu’s guff and takes his ass to suplex city!

Toshiaki Kawada . . . tells Kabuki to leave his act at the Sportatorium, and let the actual wrestlers do their thing.

Genichiro Tenryu . . . beats the piss out of anyone unlucky enough to be in the path of his hands and feet.

GENICHIRO TENRYU/TOSHIAKI KAWADA vs. GREAT KABUKI/ISAO TAKAGI

If one likes brawling and stiffness, then this isn’t something they’d want to steer clear of. It’s only an eight minute clip, but the bulk of it is Tenryu and Kawada working over Arashi with chops and kicks, as well as Tenryu and Kabuki brawling complete with Tenryu clocking him with a chair. The real fun comes when the match is winding down and Kabuki tags in Arashi, who holds his own against both Kawada and Tenryu, and even he seems surprised by this turn of events. He dodges a lariat and gets a near fall from a German suplex, he hits an overhead belly to belly and even gives Tenryu a powerbomb. But Arashi keeps looking to the corner to tag out, and Kabuki (who can’t even stand) tells him to keep going and press his advantage. But Arashi’s hesitation catches up to him, after Kabuki yet again tells him to continue, he gets clocked with a lariat from Kawada and, while he’s still stunned, Tenryu cradles him for the win. This didn’t look like it was going to be anything amazing, but between the hate and stiffness as well as Tenryu’s willingness to bump, it’s certainly a fun watch.

JUMBO TSURUTA/GREAT KABUKI/MIGHTY INOUE vs. GENICHIRO TENRYU/TOSHIAKI KAWADA/SAMSON FUYUKI

The pace and stiffness are enough to make this a good match, but it isn’t much more than just good. The only real surprise is the finish, with Tenryu yet again causing his team to lose the match; this time with him kicking at Arashi (on the floor seconding Jumbo’s team) and getting hit with a shoulder tackle by Inoue which knocks him off the apron and causes him to get counted out. Other than that, the match is more or less what you’d expect from a match with these teams. The Olympics work over Fuyuki while the Revolution works over Inoue, the work is good but there’s not much for any sort of structure or story with either control segment; certainly nothing on the level of Jumbo and Misawa working over Fuyuki’s knee in their tag match earlier in the month. Jumbo and Tenryu both interject themselves (Tenryu much more than Jumbo) a few times with the same sort of hatred and stiffness that they’d been showing each other.

The only real ‘wild card’ of the match is the Kabuki/Kawada exchanges, with Kawada holding his own far more than one would probably expect. The really cool part comes when Kawada dodges one of Kabuki’s kicks and starts firing away with his own kicks and knocking Kabuki down. Kawada sends Kabuki to the corner and charges himself into a kick from Kabuki, and it looks like he’ll be able to tag in Jumbo and really put Kawada in trouble. But, before he can get out of the corner, Tenryu drills him with a lariat, and it allows Kawada to stay in control and even give Fuyuki a brief spell to work him over. If not for him being the reason that Tenryu got distracted on the apron, then this match would have seemed more appropriate for Arashi to be in Jumbo’s place. Outside of the brawl at the end and a few quick spurts of working over Fuyuki and later Kawada, Jumbo mostly stays out of things. His biggest contribution is the lariat that breaks up Tenryu’s powerbomb to Inoue and kicks off the home stretch. And, outside of that one powerbomb attempt, there’s nothing from anyone else to suggest that they’re trying to bring the match to a close. The aftermath, with Tenryu’s reaction to the result and going crazy on Inoue with a chair, is the best thing to see here by far. ***

The TV show proper ends with a quick clip of Tenryu’s match with Arashi from 1/28. Being that it’s a sub-1-minute clip with no finish shown and that the match in full will be aired the following week, I think we can just call it.

Conclusion: Well, if you’re a fan of angry Tenryu beating people up (and really, who wouldn’t be?) then this is something you’d want to see. But there’s really nothing standout here as far as wrestling goes.