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This was a bit disappointing in terms of action, but it told a good story and it was the culmination of the invader heel Funk against the ace Colon, in the tournament final. Good crowd, even though Porto Rico has been more vocal on other occasions. Funk made this a blast with his dirty heel stuff, they had to base everything on crowd support and slow pacing, as Colon couldn't bump like Barry Windham or Rick Martel of course. My only big issue is that it felt a bit lazy for a A show, even Dory didn't really do anything impactful on his run in, which made all of them look older than they actually were. Good babyface finish and, at the end of the day, this was a good 15 minutes exhibition ***

This was wrestled in a very smart way, as a green Doc and an average Hayes managed to work a textbook cage match that was better than it had any right to be. Hayes got great heat, which helped his opponent and the flow of the bout, which was smoke and mirrors at times. It got bloody of course and this had a good impact on the drama of the match. I never bought the shoulder block as a finish and it looked a bit weak, but the crowd loved this and so good job. ***1/2

Fun match, Casas was visibly not at the peak of his career yet, but he looked very promising on the mat and Guerrera led him very well. This featured quick action and then it gradually turned into a more heated confrontation, which benefitted the rudo of course. Nice finish too, without too many complication. While not a revolutionary match, it was very positive if compared to some New Japan junior matches where they kill time in the first half before the spotfest begins ***1/4

More good heel work from Funk, who got heat just from the way he was undressing and dealing with the fans. This was more 'fun' than 'good' in a way, despite Martel being very credible with his selling as usual, as they didn't reach the same drama level of the match Funk had with Barry Windham the day before. Too much 'gaga' at times, but once again Funk sold the babyface's comeback and bumped big time, taking a disgusting chair spot, before resorting to a dirty finish ***1/4

I might be wrong, but this might be the only time they ever faced and I am glad this exists. This was such a rugged and snug bout, they quickly established their roles and Funk was so effective in his dirty heel portrait, despite him still being able to wrestle in the 'All Japan way'. Great selling by Windham, who was determined to get revenge after being beaten down and spat on. The spot of the match was Funk piledriving Windham on the concrete, only for Windham to give it back to him twice when he started his comeback. Funk did wonders with his drunk and anger selling, even though he outsmarted his opponent at the end ****

This lacked a bit in quality and it didn't pick up right away due to some underwhelming stall segments, but it was such a simple and well fought bout after that. Starr had a non-nonsense approach, selling and dishing punishment in a very believable way. It got bloody and Invader sold his ass off for half of the match, despite receiving a very weak chairshot from a mysterious woman, and the finishing stretch was quite hot with a good finish to boot ***1/4

Very cool match, this chapter was a nice spin off of their confrontation from a few days earlier. This started rather slowly and they went trought the motions, but it picked up thanks to Takada selling the leg and Koshinaka not backing down towards the end, when the champion had his usual comeback. Good booking, as Koshinaka was brought to Takada's level and endured a few kicks like a brave underdog, then managed to get a lucky victory in front of a hot crowd ***1/2

Not the best New Japan elimination match of the 80s by any shot, but this was still good and had enough energy, especially because the crowd went crazy during the strikes. Fun 20 minutes deal, with satisfying limbwork stuff, but this never evolved into an epic match for some reason. I liked the double Fujunami/Maeda elimination, as it left space to their seconds and made the match unpredictable, the finish was good as well ***1/2

Good match after all, despite my deep dislike for the stipulation; there were 7 or 8 finishes in 20 minutes and the flow of this suffered a lot because of it. Still, it was a green Bigelow attacking and Lawler selling before his punches, so you know this had some good stuff anyway. The overbooking and all the ringside gaga wasn't fun either, especially the ref bump, but this managed to still be quite relevant despite being very simple in terms of structure. ***1/4

This was not perfect, but criminally underrated as it is not on people's radars when it comes to 80s All Japan. I liked the way Choshu tried to keep Tenryu on the mat, but then still indulged in strikes when cornered, even though Tenryu always seemed to have some sort of advantage in this. Some structure could be improved in the middle, maybe during Choshu's neck work, but the bombs were impressive and a good recall to their previous matches. Tenryu never backs down in terms of strength and stubbornness, so Choshu made him bleed and this led to the disappointing DQ ***3/4

Flair managed to get a decent match out of a very green Luger; they even lied a bit on the 30 minutes time limit, making sure not to expose Luger totally. Decent smoke and mirrors and Flair formula, as the Naitch sold big time for the opponent and bled, before working on his leg as predictable. Luger did sell, to his credit, and had enough charisma despite still not being there in terms of psychology or stamina. The non-finish helped with booking a rematch down the line, Luger passed the test here despite an average mark **3/4

An highly enjoyable bout. Espanto took charge during most of the match, focusing on Santo's neck and with some great attempts to rip his mask off. Santo bled a lot and was such a natural in terms of feeding off the crowd, using his selling to build his comeback, which was more emphatic than 'good'. There were lots of cuts and taping issues here, which hurt the experience in my eyes, ruining the flow of the match and the excitement from the crowd ***1/2

This was great, also thanks to a crazy crowd. It's a shame Rose and Somers never got a chance as a duo in New York or Atlanta, their aggression and control over both Rockers was great, bringing both babyfaces to bleed and fight from underneath. Shawn's suffering was especially great, due to the desperate way he was trying to break free and his spiteful comeback later on. The finish was a letdown, even though the program had to obviously continue. Easily one of the best 'out of nowhere' matches of the 80s ***3/4

The correct date should be August 17th. An incredible crowd and a good match, that was almost great despite a slow start in the ring. The back work from Koloff was good and Magnum sold it in an incredible way, squirming and yelling to make Koloff's stuff look great. Best TA's selling apart from his Ted DiBiase matches. Long and good bearhug sequence, despite TA working on Koloff's arm at the beginning. This gets very hot towards the end and the dirty finish was also well executed, as TA looked very strong despite being defeated thanks to the chain ***1/2

Taped on the 16th. This was an angle advancement and they went through the motions at times, but it was still Flair vs Dusty for 20 minutes, so the crowd was very hot and there was enough goodness in the ring. I liked the way they worked on each other's legs, as Dusty wanted to beat Flair with his own weapon, they reversed the figure four quite a few times. Baby Doll's turn was a cool idea, even though I didn't care for the finish as it was way overbooked- ***

Easily the best MNX/R&R match for my money, as often their bouts had a sudden finish and I always felt like they had more in their tanks. The early part, apart from the usual great heel stuff, also didn't have any stalling and no sequences felt disjointed. As predictable, the MNX had 2 control segments, one on Morton and one on the underrated Gibson, that led to the final hot tag. The finish was extremely hot and unpredictable, with a banged up Morton getting a desperate pin for the R&R ****

This was a very solid match and for some reason it's not famous at all. Lots of struggling and limb work, I appreciated the emphasis on small details, despite them not fully delivering when it was time to get to the 'exciting part'. Orton was more mobile than I would expect him to be and did outstanding work on Santana's ribs, triggering a later comeback. A real shame that, after like 30 minutes, this had such an abrupt finish with a heated but random pull apart brawl ***1/2

Good and atypical match, as Steamboat was the furious one that wanted revenge, while Roberts worked the mat and tried to control the opponent. It felt strange at times, but in a good way, if that makes sense. I loved the story of Roberts protecting his face repeatedly, until Steamboat finally managed to punch him and get some revenge. This kind of died for me after that, Roberts did some decent work on the arm without getting too deep, but the finish was not the crowd explosion that one would expect due to the nature of the feud ***1/2

Not a famous match and the crowd wasn't as loud as other times, but easily one of the best NJPW/UWF junior mashups, as their styles matched very well and they didn't just start kicking each other for the sake of it. Very simple story (Takada working on the arm to stop the submissions and Yamazaki working on the leg to stop the kicks), decent pace and good selling. The strikes were good too and added to the story, leading to a good and consistent finish. ***1/2

Another good match of the NJPW/UWF series. Maeda's bad habits were more bearable in a tag team situation with a grounded partner like Kido; Maeda and Fujinami actually had a very heated and hart hitting series of confrontations. Kimura took a lot of beating but had a very resentful comeback and he was also selling his fatigue, which was cool. I also liked the flashy pinfall, even though the crowd reaction hinted that they wanted the match to continue for another bit ***1/4

They tried to put on an epic match here and it worked, to some extent. The crowd was red hot for it and most of Takada's kicks were great, but they were both frustrating in terms of the way they were selling. Koshinaka tried to no sell kicks at times, while Takada ignored the 10 minutes limb work on his leg, which magically didn't have any effect on his ability to kick. They had some good nearfalls and an impactful finish, despite not building it properly. This had great moments, but also very frustrating ones. ***

This was great. Such a simple but intense fight, they mainly only hit and stomped each other without any limb work, but they did it with an exciting pace and reaching the right climax, hit after hit. Khan almost mocked Choshu's offense at the beginning, until he started bleeding all over the place, selling his opponent's blows like he was finally realising he made a big mistake. The stalling was a functional part of the story at the beginning, but some parts didn't fully deliver in the second part of the match, until the very strong finishing stretch, thanks to a couple of exciting near falls that preceded the ultimate lariat. ***3/4

Fun house show match, their chemistry was in full display here. Steamboat did very good when he was in control, focusing on Savage's arm, but then the armwork kind of died and the match took a 180° in terms of structure, which felt strange. This turned into a bloody brawl, which was fine, as Savage bled first and then was the one to punish the challenger. They tiredly dragged this at the end, teasing a non-finish before actually doing it, as it became quite predictable ***

The Flair/Dusty pairing never felt too good to me, but this was a pretty good cage match, despite lacking some sense of drama of urgency. Flair tried his best to do his formula match inside the cage, selling a lot for Dusty and, of course, using the structure to bleed buckets. Good leg work by the Naitch, but this was quite a few notches down his cage match against Morton at the beginning of the tour, even though the crowd was crazy for the title change ***