ALL JAPAN ON NTV

taped 2/21/90

Kenta Kobashi . . . takes his first ever thrashing from Stan Hansen, something he’d be doing quite a bit over the next few years.

Mighty Inoue . . . works the armbar like he’s trying out for the UWF!

Shunji Takano . . . teams with the company ace in the main event, but his job description for the evening is ‘tackling dummy.’

BARRY WINDHAM vs. AKIRA TAUE

Yes, this oddball matchup happened. There’s precious little of it shown, and aside from the last thirty or so seconds, it doesn’t seem like anyone is really missing anything, unless one is a big fan of the headlock. Taue and Barry have a slap/chop exchange, and Taue is surprisingly stiff with his shots and knocks Barry back into the corner where he unloads a couple of forearms. But Barry gets the boot up on the corner charge and hits the superplex with floatover for the win.

STAN HANSEN vs. KENTA KOBASHI

Much like Kobashi’s match with Abby, everyone knows that Kobashi has zero chance of winning here. But what sets this apart is the way that Stan puts over the few things that Kobashi does. When Hansen staggers back after Kobashi’s dropkick, one can almost see him gaining credibility. What’s even more impressive than that is what Kobashi comes back from; namely Hansen trying to leave his boot prints in Kobashi’s chest, and a nasty knee drop to the head. Hansen wants to be as disdainful as he can, but Kobashi just won’t stay down. Kobashi uses the turnbuckle to kick off and stop Hansen from doing a backdrop, and the fall really seems to hurt Hansen, and it allows Kobashi to ramp up his offense with a couple of leg drops and a splash off the top. But Kobashi is too inexperienced, and Hansen is too strong. After Kobashi initially avoids the lariat and hits another dropkick, Hansen just waits for him to get up and hits the lariat to finish the kid off.

GENICHIRO TENRYU/TOSHIAKI KAWADA vs. GREAT KABUKI/MIGHTY INOUE

The home stretch was a bit frenzied, but this was a solid match for the most part. Everyone had something to contribute; Inoue with solid matwork to carry the middle portion of the match, Kawada was good for the underdog selling, Tenryu brought the anger and stiffness, and Kabuki was a good counterpart and foil for Tenryu. There’s an especially great moment from Kawada after a longish sleeper from Kabuki; Kawada manages to avoid a lariat from Inoue and hit a German suplex, and between him still being worn down from the sleeper as well as the energy expended from doing the suplex, he can’t do anything to capitalize and both men are laid out. Inoue’s array of armbars was fun to watch, and it was a bit surprising to see Kawada finally break free and tag out, only for Tenryu to find himself trapped in the same armbar, requiring Kawada to make the same sort of save that Tenryu had to make for him.

The final few minutes, after Kabuki clocks Tenryu with the chair, see the match go off the rails. Inoue and Kawada are trying to work and, depending on which of them is in control, Tenryu or Kabuki intervene to help their respective partner and to neutralize each other. At one point Inoue surprises Tenryu with a small package for a near fall, despite Tenryu not even being legal. Inoue reverses a go behind and tries for a German and Tenryu clocks him with an enzuigiri so Kawada can do his own German. But, while the ref is putting Tenryu out, Kabuki comes in and hits Kawada with a roundhouse and that allows Inoue to cradle him for the pinfall. The look on Tenryu’s face tells the whole story. He may not have been the one to ‘lose’ the match, but his ill-timed intervention was the biggest contributing factor to it.

JUMBO TSURUTA/SHUNJI TAKANO vs. TERRY GORDY/STEVE WILLIAMS

After a red-hot opening, this settles down into a rather pedestrian tag team match, which isn’t altogether a bad thing. It shows that Gordy and Doc can actually wrestle, and aren’t just crazy brawlers in the vein of Abby, Sheik, Tiger Jeet Singh, etc. Takano tries to buck up and fight back, but Doc and Gordy don’t give him a damn thing. Even after Takano hits a flying dropkick that knocks Doc down, he just gets right back up and hits a shoulder tackle. Jumbo is obviously more successful; Gordy’s selling of the jumping knee is great, and Doc press slamming Gordy onto Jumbo was the highlight of the match.

Although Gordy and Doc control the bulk of the match (which isn’t very long to begin with), their offense is decidedly low tech and there’s no real sense of direction to it. Gordy works over Takano’s leg for a bit, but it gets forgotten about after Gordy uses the Scorpion. Jumbo’s ‘hot tag’ run only lasts a couple of moves, and once Takano tags back in, it’s obvious that they’re getting ready to wind things down. It’s not much of a match as far as wrestling goes, but it’s a good enough way for the Gordy/Doc team to make an impression.

Conclusion: Not much of a TV show this time around, although it’s certainly a notable one with the first ever Hansen/Kobashi match and the debut of Doc and Gordy as a tag team.