Funk Bros vs Road Warriors (10/20) - There are a number of Road Warrior matches in '86. This looked like the best one. I'm very glad I watched it. The Warriors at their best - Powerful but also vulnerable. Terry is great too. Comedy at the start but selling his fear but being tough SOB. That's a rarity in wrestling. Dory is the thing keeping them in the fight. They are selling for him and all is right in the wrestling world. Where this match turns great, is the finish. There's a great high spot that kicks it off. I loved this match! It's astounding that of the 4 wrestles in the ring, Dory Jr. is the one still alive. Keep on, keeping on Dory!!
Terry Funk vs. Riki Choshu (10/21) - Terry gets slapped really hard by Riki. He rolls outside and has a coniption fit 😄 This is a good match and what one might call.A minimalist match. It mainly consists of Terry getting beat up by Choshu but finding a way to keep himself in the fight. I wish this was more competitive but I don't know who to pin that on. Did Baba not really want to push Terry as a threat? Did these two have a reason for doing this kind of match?Â
November
Haru Sonada, Genichiro Tenryu & Jumbo Tsuruta vs Hiro Saito, Super Strong Machine & Ashura Hara (11/01) - It took me a minute to commit to watching this one. No reason why but I am glad that I did. It is great! It's a precursor to what All Japan would do with the 6-man match. It's hard hitting, intense stuff. Just look at those teams! They scream smash mouth wrestling to me. Hara & Strong Machine on the same team is something cool. This is just another example of why the '86 roster was pretty great.Â
Tiger Mask vs Norio Honaga (11/01) - This was a good match when they're not farting around trying to do wrestling holds. I'm not a "movez" guy but come on dudes...just do some moves! The wrestling you're doing is like saltine crackers and watered down Kool-Aid. They listened and ends up being a nice lil match.
Tenryu & Tsuruta vs Giant Baba & Tiger Mask (11/28) - Holy cow! Baba comes alive! This is a precursor to the late 80's Baba tag/6 man resurgence. Not only that but Misawa Tiger goes off! He must have done a half dozen high risk moves. Tenryu and Jumbo just laid into their boss & didn't go easy on their junior partner either. Misawa definitely looks ready to play a bigger role in the organization. If you're OK with Baba then, this might be a near classic match.Â
December
Stan Hansen vs Terry Funk (12/03) - These two can do this shit in their sleep. That said, this seemed to be the stiffest match of theirs that I've seen. Terry & Stan were beating the crap out each other. I mean Terry did an overhead elbow right into Stan's face right towards the start of this bout. Things never chilled out from their. This was a very good match overall & the post match was excellent also.
Dory Funk Jr. vs Jumbo Tsuruta (12/03) - We only get a third of this but this is slow boiling old school technical match that I would have loved to see in full. Now don't get me wrong, I try to watch stuff under 15 minutes like this TV version especially when looking online. Again, I am trying to get thru my DVD backlog. That said, this was really good and they work a mean headlock match. They are knocking the sweat from each other with their elbows & chops. I dug this one!
Rick Martel vs Riki Choshu (12/03) - This started out with a lightning pace. Then, they settled down into working over each others legs which was ferocious. I so wish they sold this after the fact since it appeared they were really going to town but, it was a 10 min. match. Evenly fought but ended a little to soon for me. Very good, intense match though. Totally worth watching! Just not the heavenly dream battle I hoped for. But the first few minutes had me believing it was real!
Rick Martel & Tom Zenk vs Tiger Mask & Samson Fuyuki (12/06) We only get the last few minutes but this is the cool moves match of 1986. This was a blast!!!
Funk Bros vs Stan Hansen & Ted Dibiase (12/06) - Much too short for the amount of talent the ring but, it's an excellent follow-up to the Terry vs Stan match above. More of a storyline/booking angle but enjoyable of course!
Jumbo Tsuruta & Genichiro Tenryu vs Stan Hansen & Ted Dibiase (RWTL Playoff Match 12/12) - They just cut a great pace and whooped each other from bell to bell! Each blow was audible - whap! thud! It was like the Adam West Batman 😋 Awesome stuff...four of the best in the ring.
Jumbo Tsuruta & Genichiro Tenryu vs Stan Hansen & Ted Dibiase (RWTL Final 12/12) - I gotta watch the finals...especially after their earlier match. This is for all the marbles and it's an excellent compliment to the prior bout. They pick up where they left off but Tenryu is hurt. Can Stan & Ted put him away? Can Jumbo save his partner? A heck of a finals especially given how it all played out. Great match!
0 Comments
Recommended Comments
There are no comments to display.
Create an account or sign in to comment
You need to be a member in order to leave a comment
Create an account
Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!
Register a new accountSign in
Already have an account? Sign in here.
Sign In Now