1988

[Phil Schneider]

We chose as our first champ

Stan Hansen/Terry Gordy v. Genichiro Tenryu/Toshiaki Kawada AJPW 12/16/88

SC Review

Comment below, nominate contenders ect.

[Curt McGirt]

This cracked the top ten of the '80s Lucha set (and I can't for the life of me remember where I put it on my list)

And speaking of the sets, you could do a #2 vs. #3 battle if you do the 10-man from New Japan next.

[Curt McGirt]

EDIT: GODDAMMIT! I wrote a whole thing about the match from '88 between these two I found on my external, but this isn't it. Well, here is something else that probably is really good too. The one I thought I was writing about is apparently from 8/30/88, and seriously, watch that match if you can find it. Every single person in that match is pissed off for one reason or another and they just paste each other the whole time. Yatsu has a shiner, Tenryu tries to take out Jumbo's leg, Jumbo gets super pissed and waffles Tenryu with a metal box. It's sloppy and wild and vicious and a perfect contender.

EDIT II: Here's the Whiskey and Wrestling blog (who someone on here writes, dunno who) review of 8/30

Spoiler

Genichiro Tenryu & Ashura Hara v Jumbo Tsuruta & Yoshiaki Yatsu (All Japan, 8/30/88)  - GREAT

I liked this better than the previous night's match, and right now it's sitting in my top 30. Both matches go about the same length of time, but I thought the first half of this, leading up to the first real heat segment, was way better and I never got the same sort of "killing time" vibe that I got from the other match. Tenryu and Yatsu trade slaps in the corner and Tenryu turns around and just LEVELS Jumbo with a slap out of nowhere. It was the greatest. They do another Jumbo in peril segment where Tenryu and Hara work over the leg, but Jumbo doesn't persist on throwing fifty running knees this time, and Tenryu smacks him in the knee with a table at one point so it was pretty awesome. They go into an extended Hara in peril segment after Jumbo fucking drills him with a lariat, and Hara might have the best lariat bump of any beefy guy in wrestling history. He totally leans into it like a pro and lands like a sack of potatoes. I thought they started to lose a little momentum/direction after Hara makes the tag, but they reel me back in again when Jumbo completely loses his mind and tries to murder Tenryu. Tenryu tries to get in the ring and Jumbo just waffles him with these super nasty looking clubbing blows right to the face, then he throws him over the barricade and starts beating the shit out of him with this big metal box thing while everybody in the vicinity scatters. This was like some "Hansen swinging a cowbell" shit; people just running for their lives, not wanting to get caught in the firestorm. The finishing stretch was pretty fucking great here, but there's one nearfall that was blown pretty badly (not sure whether it was the ref's fault, Yatsu and Hara's fault, or the fault of all three). Tenryu eating three nasty backdrops and Hara trying to save him by covering him with his body was a cool touch, as was Jumbo going ahead and just pinning both of them. Hell of a match.

 

[NintendoLogic]

You'll get no argument from me on this pick. The RWTL final is an all-time top 15 match for me. I'd like to throw out El Dandy vs. Pirata Morgan as a worthy challenger, but it doesn't seem to be online anymore. Instead, I'll nominate my pick for the best sub-10:00 match of all time.